A very happy Holi day across India
INDIA’S colourful festivities to mark Holi are under way, unburdened by Covid fears for the first time in three years.
The raucous spring festival sees millions across the country hurl coloured powder at each other in a kaleidoscopic celebration of the end of winter and the triumph of good over evil.
A public holiday will see large street carnivals around the country, but the party started early in the northern city of Vrindavan, where elderly women daubed in splotches of saffron danced the day away together.
“Because of the coronavirus lockdown over the last two years, we could not celebrate Holi,” 72year-old Shakuntala Davi said.
“Now there’s no lockdown, no coronavirus,” she added. “We are so happy, I have no words to explain.” Vrindavan is a holy pilgrimage town, traditionally associated with the Hindu deity Krishna.
But it is also home to around 2000 widows who have been shunned by their families after the deaths of their husbands.
The idea of their participation in festive occasions has traditionally been taboo in India and their involvement in Holi celebrations only began a decade ago.
Covid derailed last year’s Holi party, with public gatherings banned out of fear they would become superspreader events.