197 – Welcome to the spring: Holi, the Festival of Colors

Holi is the festival of color celebrated in India with joy and fervor. It is based on two stories. The first story is about Krishna. He was blue in color and he was very embarrassed about it. His color was blue because he had been poisoned by breast milk. He was sad as all the milk maids and Radha were a golden, brown color. He was demoralized and he thought that they would not find him handsome. He complained to his mother and she said, “Just color your face.” So he did that and threw color mixed with water on all the maidens. The Gopis (milk maids) enjoyed the frolic and throwing of color, and after that everybody started playing with color. Continue reading