As winter takes a last
nasty bite, it's time to conjure up spring by painting the town...pink.
The custom is so old
that no one is sure how it all got started.
But it wasn't always fun and games.
One popular tale is that long ago in India, there was a boy named
Prahalad. He was a devotee of the god
Vishnu. Prahalad's father, an evil king,
had grown exceedingly arrogant and jealous of Vishnu's power. He ordered Prahalad to renounce Vishnu but
Prahalad refused. Incensed, the king
ordered his sister, a fire demon named Holika, to sit on a pyre holding Prahalad, so
that he would be consumed. Miraculously,
Vishnu's power protected him, and Holika burned instead. To this day, Hindus celebrate this moment,
when good was preserved and evil burned away.
Some centuries later,
Vishnu was manifested as Krishna, in the northern city of Dwarka. Krishna was a mischievous young prankster. One spring day, he thought it would be fun to
drench the local girls with water and, to infuriate them, he added bright
colors that would stain their clothing.
They were none too pleased, so of course they retaliated. Krishna recruited all the young boys to join
him. Adults got caught in the
cross-fire. Soon the entire village,
from the wealthiest nobles to the most downtrodden untouchables, joined the
fray and launched the spray. The village
was stained a joyous, raucous rainbow of pinks, yellows, purples and reds. In the end, everybody had such a good time,
they resolved to do it again the following spring...
And so, this weekend,
India will explode in a massive, joyous, technicolor, communal water-balloon
fight known as "Holi." It's the annual
festival of spring. Holi celebrates the
destruction of evil and the coming of colorful days ahead. On Saturday night, there will be bonfires of
celebration. And then on Sunday,
millions of Indians will dress in plain, absorbent white cotton - with no
distinction of class, clan, or gender - and splatter a rainbow across the
sub-continent. And not just in
India. The party spills across the
globe, to everywhere the Hindu diaspora has taken the faithful: Nepal,
Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Africa.
Even to the United States, where there is a particularly large and
notorious Holi celebration each year at Stanford University. (Yes, for one day the Cardinal will be
rainbow-colored.)
Meanwhile, here in the
Northeast, there's no sign of spring in sight.
Another foot of snow is expected over the weekend. Everywhere you look, the world is coated
white like cotton, white like...a white cotton shirt. Hmm. That does it! We're grabbing the shovels
and digging out. Heading down to the
Stop 'N Shop for water guns, balloons and RIT dye. And, impatient for spring, we're conjuring up
Vishnu. We've had enough, it's time to tie-dye the yard.
Holi Ki Shubhkamnaye.
Hey, you can now read
old installments of the quick Sliver in our online archive. Just go here:
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs015/1103023679528/archive/1103033975377.html