Religion: Holi - the festival of colours

As the coming of spring warms the landscape, northern India (and any Indians around the world) celebrate this day of hijinx and general hilarity.

The festival of Holi is celebrated on the day after the full moon in early March every year.

Holi is a symbolic commemmoration of a legend from Hindu Mythology.

The story is about an arrogant king who resents his son Prahlada worshipping Lord Vishnu. He tries to kill his son but fails each time.

Finally, the king's sister Holika who is has a special boon which has made her immune to burning, sits with the boy in a huge fire.

However, the prince Prahlada emerges unscathed, while his aunt burns to death.

Holi commemorates this and huge bonfires are burnt on the eve of Holi as its symbolic representation.

This exuberant festival is also associated with the immortal love of Krishna and Radha, and hence, Holi is spread over 16 days in Vrindavan as well as Mathura - the two cities with which Lord Krishna shared a deep affiliation.

Apart from the usual fun with coloured powder and water, Holi is marked by vibrant processions which are accompanied by folk songs, dances and a general sense of abandoned vitality.

Today Holi is an excuse for Indians to shed inhibitions and caste differences for a day of spring fever and Big Fun. Teenagers spend the day misbehaving in the streets, adults extend the hand of peace, and everyone chases everyone else around, throwing brightly colored powder (gulal) and water over each other.



The festival's preamble begins on the night of the full moon. Bonfires are lit on street corners to cleanse the air of evil spirits and bad vibes, and to symbolize the destruction of the wicked Holika, for whom the festival was named.

Source: www.indiaexpress.com/faith/festivals/holi.html

End of Term Fun

So went out with my friends yesterday to celebrate the end of term. We went to Edgeware Road to Beirut - a Lebenese Restuarant. Not everyone could make it though as lots of people had pulled all-nighters so that they could finish the statistics coursework on time - and now they were too exhausted.

Since I'm a vegetarian, I can be very picky and find it uncomfortable to order my food when I can see meat being prepared (I can't see how people can eat kebabs - they look like sh*te - and probably taste like it too :P).



Pic: Disgusting Sh*te

Anyway, one of my friends is also veggie, so I ordered with her. I had a falafel wrap and some toasted hummus sandwich (had ordered something else but after smelling it I decided to give it a miss).

The food was okay - I've had better and I'm not a huge fan of Lebenese food, I prefer Indian and Italian food myself.

Anyway, some of my friends decided to go for some Sheesha after this - I'm not into these things so I didn't take part. Two of my friends tried it for the first time and one said she felt ... really relaxed....the other felt a bit dizzy. We had one 'pro' with us though - one of my mates has her own at home - uh I was asked if I wanted a go but I'm against smoking, drinking, drugs and anything containing tobacco (i.e this).

My *relaxed* friend was starting to act more sillier than usual, and then someone dared her to eye up passers-by. That was quite entertaining, although I do feel sorry for the old men who were being stared at in such a crasy manner. In fact, one guy seemed to be completely mesemerised by her - he was walking past but keep loking back.

...Hmm I didn't particularly like going home on the train by myself though - my dad picked me up at the local station so at least I didn't have to walk down the dark side roads.

I think some of my mate went ice-skating today. I would have gone except I've got a bruise on my leg after banging into a chair in the lecture hall - ouch! So instead, I spent most of the morning trying to access my hotmail account, I had stopped working since Wednesday. Luckily, my brother managed to fix it after a few hours.

As you can probably see, I've also been trying to modify my layout. I think I was to add a few more features, but I need to decide what. My mum made a great strawberry-n-cream chocolate sponge cake today - mmm - delicious... ahh slight o/t.