February 4, 2012  Print Email | India gets ready for Holi day
Powder to the people
Posted by Our religious correspondent, Martin Luther at 11:04 AM GMT on Mar 09, 2009 | THE HOLI festival takes place in two days. This is when people all over India go nuts throwing different coloured powders at each other. It is sacred to Krishna and by implication Kamadeva, who, according to some, is an aspect of Lalita.
In the Tantrarajatantra (Chapter XXXIV), it’s said: "Lalita assumed a male form as Krishna and by enveloping all women, enchanted the whole world."
At the last Holi festival I attended in a village in Gujarat, there was much throwing of coloured powders, but women also lit a bonfire and danced around it anti-clockwise, while singing folk songs. Everyone was pretty cheery.
 In former times, Holi – also known as the festival of colours - was an occasion of wild abandon.
According to The Hindoos as They are, by Shib Chunder Bose (1883): "Revelry and unbecoming mirth are the grand characteristics of this as indeed of almost every Hindoo festival. It is sickening to reflect how indecency and immorality are…" (continued ad nauseam).
There’s a website all about Holi, here.
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