Saturday 14 March 2009

Holi: The Festival of Colors

Photo ©REUTERS/K.K. Arora-All Rights Reserved

I've been waiting for the Boston Globe's The Big Picture to feature its choices of large format images of Holi, and I didn't have to wait long.

Holi, which usually falls in the later part of February or March, is a traditional festival celebrated in India and elsewhere such as Nepal and Bangladesh. The main day is observed by people throwing colored powder and colored water at each other, and bonfires are lit the day before to commemorate a religious event.

In the above photograph, women tear off the clothes of men as they play huranga in Dauji temple near the northern Indian town of Mathura during this year's Holi festivities. Huranga is a game played between men and women a day after the Holi festival during which men drench women with liquid colors and women tear off the clothes of the men.

It does look like fun, doesn't it? Potentially damaging to one's camera gear, but certainly fun.

REI | De Las Flores

REI by Tewfic El-Sawy on on Exposure