Holi Festival: a colors’ explosion

Blogtrotters
27 mar 2017
Tempo di lettura: 2 min

The main reason why we planned our travel to India was to experience the real Holi Festival in the country where it was born.

We’ve always been impressed by the pictures showing thousands people celebrating together in the streets covered by colours from head to toe.

The wish of being there, surrounded by colours and music and taking those pictures ourselves was too strong.

And this is how everything started.

People throwing colours in the main square of Udaipur

People throwing colours during Holi

Holi celebration in front of Jagdish Temple, Udaipur

What is Holi Festival?

Holi, also known as the “festival of colours" or the “festival of love” is a Hindu spring festival celebrated in India and Nepal to announce the arrival of spring, the end of winter and the victory of good over evil.

While nowadays Holi is celebrated in almost every part of India, and also in other countries in Southeast Asia, it's especially famous in Mathura and Vrindavan, two small villages in Uttar Pradesh where Holi originally comes from.

Holi celebrations last for a night and a day, starting on the evening of the Full Moon day, which this year was the 13th March. In some parts of India though, like Vrindavan and Mathura, celebrations start one week in advance.

Holi's Eve

During this time everyone gets together in the city’s main square and streets, throws powder colours to each other and wishes “Happy Holi” to whoever crosses their path.

Holi celebrations may vary from area to area, but what all cities have in common during these days is the positive energy and vibe that you can feel, see, smell and taste everywhere.

Celebrating Holi in Udaipur

We had the chance to spend these days in Udaipur, a picturesque city on the lake Pichola also knows as the “white city”.

We stayed at the beautiful Jugat Niwas Palace Hotel and felt like VIPs for 2 days enjoying our breakfast and dinner on the sofa with a stunning view on the lake.

The cherry on top is that we experienced one of the craziest and best days in our lives while celebrating Holi.

It all started on Holi’s Eve, the 12th March, when people gathered their friends and relatives in the main square around a bonfire.

The day after was terrific, we had fun like never before!

No more whites or blacks, we were all pink, blue, green, red, yellow…and wet! Yes, be prepared because children have a lot of fun throwing not only colours, but also cold water.

Erica was brave enough to take her camera covered with plastic bags and tape to this war of colours.