Holi is wild and raucous, a frolic of friendly playfulness. During Holi, India's streets are overtaken by crowds awash with colored powder. Not only clothes, but faces, arms and hair are smeared and sprayed with every color of the rainbow. People sing, dance, play, hug each other and smile with such child-like joy that it makes one wonder where so much happiness comes from! No religious festival in the world compares to Holi in terms of engaging young and old alike. It is a celebration of love, forgiveness, hope and just plain fun.

What is Holi?Holi is a community's exuberant expression of joy to welcome the warmth of spring. In a reflection of nature's abundance, Hindus celebrate with bursts of color, camaraderie and shared abandon. It begins on Purnima, full moon day, in the Hindu month of Phalguni (February/March) and lasts for as long as 16 days.

How does the festival start?Many communities create a central bonfire on the night before Holi, starting with kindling and logs and adding organic debris as they clean up their property. The fire symbolizes the torching of negative or troublesome experiences and memories. An effigy of Holika, a demoness personifying negativity, is consigned to the flames, and freshly harvested barley and oats are offered. The embers are collected to light sacred fires, and the ashes are used to mark the forehead as a blessing.

When does the color fun begin?On the day of Holi, people celebrate by playing, dancing and running in the streets. Water pistols are filled with colored water and squirted on family, friends and strangers alike. Dye powders and water balloons are a big part of the play. The wise wear old clothes, usually white, in anticipation of the mess! Virtually anything goes, including ribald humor, practical jokes and sexual teasing--all excused with the saying, "Don't mind, it's Holi!" (Hindi: Bura na mano, Holi hai.) Men are at the playful mercy of women, who dance with them and even dress them in drag. Especially in North India, people celebrate with abandon, even splashing color on their homes as a prelude to the more sober custom of renewing the paint with shell-based white. Deities and images of ancestors are hand-painted and placed in beautiful altars. Dramatic events feature devotional songs and the retelling of the love epic of Radha and Krishna. Bonds are renewed, particularly among in-laws and the extended family. Etiquette on Holi requires that one accept all overtures with an open heart, burying grievances to begin relationships afresh. People of all walks of life mingle and greet, applying vermilion on each other's foreheads in an uninhibited exchange of goodwill.

What are the delicacies of this festival?Special sweet and savory treats including mathri, puran poli and vadai are made. Many communities make an intoxicating, cooling drink, called thandai, made of purified water, sugar, seeds of watermelon, muskmelon and lotus, along with nuts, cardamom, fennel, white pepper, saffron and rose petals.


Tidbits About HoliWhat is the meaning behind the bonfire? Love, positive values and goodness are celebrated on Holi. Their triumphs over divisiveness and negative forces have been reinforced in legends, such as that of Holika and her brother Prahlad. The famous king Hiranyakashipu had earned a boon that made him virtually indestructible. Blinded by this power, he thought he was God, the only being worthy of worship. His young son Prahlad was devoted to Lord Vishnu and refused to obey his father. Infuriated, the king devised the cruelest punishments. In one attempt, Prahlad's evil aunt Holika, who possessed the power to withstand fire, tricked him into climbing a burning pyre with her. Prahlad's love for true Divinity protected him from the flames. Holika burned while Prahlad lived. The bonfire of Holi is symbolic of this victory of good over evil.

How did the frolicking with color originate? Legend has it that Krishna noticed one day how much lighter Radha's complexion was than His own. His mother playfully suggested that He smear Radha's cheeks with color to make Her look like Him, which Krishna did. The strong-willed Radha gleefully retaliated, and a merry chaos ensued. Another legend has it that Krishna celebrated this festival with His friends and the gopis. They danced and frolicked, filling the air with color in a joyous welcome of spring.

Is this a romantic occasion? The festive dancing and camaraderie create the perfect environment for matrimonial alliances. Young people find mates, and families formally seal marital agreements during these days.


Making Safe,Natural ColorsDyes made of toxic chemicals are too often used during Holi. The food-based recipes below, along with edible food coloring, offer safe alternatives for all colors.

Red: Soak red pomegranate rind in water overnight. A pinch of edible gypsum mixed with turmeric powder in water gives a bright red. Soak red hibiscus flowers in water overnight.

Yellow: Turmeric powder makes a terrific yellow.

Brown: Soak betel nut in water overnight and dilute as necessary. Or boil tea or coffee in water.

Purple: Boil blueberries in an iron vessel and let stand overnight.

Magenta: Slice or grate one beet root. Leave overnight in water. Dilute as needed for different shades.

Green: Puree spinach, coriander or mint leaves in water. Strain and use.


Fact & FictionFACT: Hindus worship and celebrate the Divine with unparalleled variety and fervor. Dance, song, prayer, meditation, processions, pilgrimage, bathing, painting, symbols and rituals are all valid ways of connecting with Divinity. This is living testimony to the existence of many paths within this ancient faith, all leading to God. Each person finds his own path among the many laid out by gurus and sages. To the Hindu, spiritual life is meant to be lived joyously, as Holi demonstrates.

FICTION: Hinduism is rich with stories of the Gods and their wives. Yet, on a deeper, philosophical level, it is widely regarded as a fiction that the Gods are married. The Supreme Being and the Gods are neither male nor female and are therefore not married.

While their numbers are rapidly growing, vegetarians are still a minority, and it is not unusual to be confronted with a meat-eater who not only protects his won right to eat flesh, but argues aggressively that vegetarians should join him in his carnivorous diet. Carnivores may regard nonmeat-eaters as a strange lot who munch on "rabbit food," and whose diet doesn't have the substance to make them strong, productive human beings. The following presentations is designed to turn the tables on such discussions by showing the devastating effects of meat-eating both on individuals and on our planet. It is based on a richly informative poster entitled, "How to win an argument with a meat-eater," published by EARTHSAVE, an organization based in Felton, California, giving facts from Pulitzer Prize nominee john Robbins' book Diet for a New America.

1. THE HUNGER-ARGUMENT AGAINST MEAT-EATING

Much of the world's massive hunger problems could be solved by the reduction or elimination of meat-eating. The reasons: 1) live-stock pasture needs cut drastically into land which could otherwise be used to grow food; 2) vast quantities of food which cold feed humans is fed to livestock raised to produce meat.

* One hundred million people could be adequately fed using the land freed if Americans reduced their intake of meat by a mere 10%

* Eighty percent of the corn and 95% of the oats grown in the U.S. is eaten by livestock. The percentage of protein wasted by cycling grain through livestock is calculated by experts as 90%

* One acre of land can produce 40,000 pounds of potatoes, or 250 pounds of beef. Fifty-six percent of all U.S. farmland is devoted to beef production, and to produce each pound of beef requires, 16 pounds of edible grain and soybeans, which could be used to feed the hungry.

2. THE ENVIRONMENTAL ARGUMENT AGAINST MEAT-EATING

Many of the world's massive environmental problems could be solved by the reduction or elimination of meat-eating, including global warming, loss or topsoil, loss of rainforests and species extinction.

* Trees, and especially the old-growth forests, are essential to the survival of the planet. Their destruction is a major cause of global warming and top soil loss. Both of these effects lead to diminished food production. Meat-eating is the number one driving force for the destruction of these forests. Two hundred and sixty million acres of U.S. forestland has been cleared for cropland to produce the meat-centered diet. Fifty-five square feet of tropical rainforest is consumed to produce every quarter-pound of rainforest beef. An alarming 75% of all U.S. topsoil has been lost to date. Eighty-five percent of this loss is directly related to livestock raising.

* Another devastating result of deforestation is the loss of plant and animal species. Each year, 1,000 species are eliminated due to destruction of tropical rainforests for meat grazing and other uses. The rate is growing yearly.

* To keep up with U.S. consumption, 300 million pounds of meat are imported annually from Central and South America. This economic incentive impels these nations to cut down the forests to make more pastureland. In effect these countries are being drained of their resources to put meat on the table of Americans while 75% of all Central American children under the age of five are undernourished.

3. THE CANCER/CHOLESTEROL ARGUMENT AGAINST MEAT-EATING

Those who eat flesh are far more likely to contract cancer than those following a vegetarian diet.

* The risk of contracting breast cancer is 3.8 times greater for women who eat meat daily compared to less than once in a week.

* The risk of fatal ovarian cancer is three times greater for women who eat eggs 3 or more times a week as compared with less than once a week.

Meat-eaters ingest excessive amounts of cholesterol, making them dangerously susceptible to heart attacks.

* It is strange, but true that U.S. physicians are, as a rule, ill-educated in the single most important factor of health, namely diet and nutrition. Of the 125 medical schools in the U.S., only 30 require their students to take a course in nutrition. The average nutrition training received by the average U.S. physician during four years in school is only 2.5 hours. Thus doctors in the U.S. are ill-equipped to advise their patients in minimizing foods, such as meat, that contain excessive amounts of cholesterol and are known causes of heart attack.

4. THE NATURAL RESOURCES ARGUMENT AGAINST MEAT-EATING

The world's natural resources are being rapidly depleted as a result of meat-eating.

* More than half of all water used for all purposes in the U.S. is consumed in live-stock in production of the average cow is sufficient to float a destroyer (a large naval ship). While 25 gallons of water are needed to produce pound of wheat, 5,000 gallons are needed to produce a pound of California beef.

* Thirty-three percent of all raw materials (base products of farming, forestry and mining, including fossil fuels) consumed by the U.S. are devoted to the production of livestock, as compared with 2% to produce a complete vegetarian diet.

5. THE ANTIBIOTIC ARGUMENT AGAINST MEAT-EATING

Large amounts of antibiotics are being fed to livestock to control staphylococci (commonly called "staph infections"), which are becoming immune to these drugs at an alarming rate.

* The animals that are being raised for meat in the United States are diseased. The livestock industry attempts to control this disease by feeding the animals antibiotics. Huge quantities of drugs go for this purpose. (Of all antibiotics used in the U.S., 55% are fed to livestock.) But this is only partially effective because the bacteria that cause disease are becoming immune to the antibiotics. The response of the European Economic Community to the routine feeding of antibiotics to U.S. livestock was to ban the importation of U.S. meat.

6. THE PESTICIDE ARGUMENT AGAINST MEAT-EATING

Unknown to most meat-eaters, U.S. produced meat contains dangerously high quantities of deadly pesticides.

* That these chemicals are indeed ingested by the meat-eater is proven by the following facts: 1) ninety-nine percent of U.S. mother's milk contains significant levels of DDT; 2) in stark contrast, only 8% of U.S. vegetarian mother's milk containing significant levels of DDT.

7. THE ETHICAL ARGUMENT AGAINST MEAT-EATING

Many of those who have adopted a vegetarian diet have done so because of the ethical argument, either from reading about or personally experiencing what goes on daily at any one of the thousands of slaughterhouses in the U.S. and other countries, where animals suffer the cruel process of forced confinement, manipulation and violent death. Their pain and terror is beyond calculation.

* In the U.S. alone, 660,000 animals are killed for meat every hour in ghastly slaughterhouses. The average American consumes in a lifetime approximately 11 cattle, 3 lambs and sheep, 23 hogs, 45 turkeys, 1,100 chickens and 862 pounds of fish!