Sunday, February 28, 2010

Happy Holi ! (?)

You dont experience days like today where I come from. "Holi" is a Hindu/Buddhist festival that is celebrated once a year in a very unique way...I would describe it like this: A Nation-wide WATER FIGHT!!! Men, Women, and Children of all ages are out on their rooftops launching water balloons at each other. I woke up to Justin yelling "We need to get some amo!!" and then I heard the door slam, and 10 minutes later my soaking wet husband came back in with hands full of water balloons and plastic bags (a cheaper and easier alternative to filling up those pesky balloons). Still a bit sleepy-eyed I do as I'm told and fill up as many balloons as i can and then it's up to the rooftop where we climb our way up the stairs (secretly) and then launch water balloons (and plastic bags of course) towards the others who had been out since who knows when, soaked with dye and water. I have never seen so much color and chaos at one time. Holi, also known as the Festival of Colour also permits people to throw handfuls and bags full of coloured dye at one another ruining any clothes and dyeing your skin for days. You can imagine upon running out of balloons we were faced with the reality of the rest of the day. Either stay stuck in the house or venture out into the chaos that is Katmandu and be targets for all the rooftop launchers. We chose to stay in. After soaking the kids (and adults) with our American water fighting skills (ok, i handed Justin the balloons and he threw them...) we decided to catch up on some much needed movie watching and reading. Enjoy the pictures (not taken by me). If you are interested in Holi, i suggest you Google it...i don't think many of the people celebrating here really even know why...just an excuse to soak your neighbor and all the Badeshi's(foreigners)...



Have a great (dry) day..Happy Holi!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i saw them do that on the Amazing Race before, looked like a crazy party