March 6, 2015

Our Holi celebration in Mathura, India

Hey everybody! I’ve been traveling through India with my wife for the last 15 days and while we’re having a great time getting to know this amazing culture and Indian people, the one thing we were looking forward to do was to participate in Holi festival, a celebration that in recent years is getting so popular all over our planet. This festival originates in India, or to be more precise, as Indians like to believe, it all started here in Mathura and Vrindavan, two little towns just two hours away from majestic New Delhi where we’ve been staying for the last couple of days.

Holi is the festival that welcomes spring in India and marks its start, and it’s believed that it was started many years ago by Lord Krishna himself, who was, as Indians believe, born in Mathura and grew up in Vrindavan.

What do people do on Holi? People show their happiness for the beginning of the spring by spreading all kinds of coloured powder and coloured water at each other’s heads, followed with hugs and smiles. This act should bring peple together and make them closer, mark their happiness. The western cultures are also making this celebration popular in their countries but, as Indians see it, they’re doing it pretty much the wrong way. First of all, the’ve no idea about the story behind Holi and second – they simply make “colour wars” by throwing lots of coloured powder everywhere. Obviously, you can find some Indians doing it the same way, just like you can meet some who are just really using the celebration to be abusive and mean to other people. But still, most of Indians do celebrate it the right way which made our experience amazing and unforgetable.

And so we participated! Starting the day wearing clean outfits and finishing it wearing countless colours and smiles and meeting so many interesting individuals. What was it like to be a part of such a day and celebration in Mathura, from the beginning till the end of the day? Take a look at our photos.