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Holi is For Children

By Kamla Mathur; Illustrations by Shinod AP

Kamla Mathur was born and brought up in Etah, a small town in Uttar Pradesh. Now, at 65, she lives in Delhi and reminisces fondly of the Holi she and her siblings celebrated at 'home', in the area called Brajbhoomi, the land where the Braj dialect of Hindi is spoken. Brajbhoomi refers to the places connected to the legends of the birth and childhood of Krishna and his dalliance with Radha.

As Holi continues to be a significant festival for the Brajvasis, many of the old ways of celebration survive. However, with time, the community feeling has lessened somewhat. Kamla Mathur takes us back to her childhood when Holi meant sheer fun.

When I was small, our Holi celebrations used to go on for 20 days. In Etah, Holi started on Basant panchami, the festival that announces the arrival of spring and almost everyone used to be dressed in yellow.

In the morning, the idol of Lord Krishna would be taken out on a rath or chariot in a procession. All the while the attendant priests would sprinkle gulal (dry powdered colour) and gulab jal (rose water) on the onlookers. Do you know this procession used to be taken out at 7 a.m. especially so that we children would not miss out on it - we had to go to school after that.

The next few days would be spent visiting friends. A dash of gulal or chandan (sandalwood) powder on the forehead was the usual practice. The wild celebration was reserved for badi (big) Holi. My mother used to make gulal at home by grinding dried flowers. So, for those few days the whole house smelt of flowers and chandan.

Four days before Holi, came the day of rang pashi. It was spent in making food, decorating the house and dressing up. A traditional meal would comprise kadhi (a dish made of curd and ground Bengal gram) and rice, roti and a vegetable. This was offered as bhog or offering to Lord Krishna first thing in the morning.

Then the women would get busy making rangoli (floor patterns) and cleaning the house for guests in the evening. We children would patter around - helping a bit, spoiling a bit more! I used to help my mother make kanji or a cool drink with vada or a fried ball of fermented lentil and gujiyas, a sweetmeat. This would be for the evening.