While I can't tell you how the tradition of throwing colorful powder began, it's what happens every year on Holi, an Indian holiday celebrating the end of winter and the triumph of good over evil. I always knew that if I planned a trip to India, I would do it in March in order to transform into a walking rainbow in a sea of multicolor people like some kind of Beatles song.
I mainly had to plan our Holi celebration spot around where we were going to be anyway at that time in our itinerary. Since Agra didn't seem like the most happening place, I did some research and found out that Mathura, being the birthplace of the god Krishna, and Vrindavan, being his childhood home, were two really popular places for Indians to celebrate the holiday, both of which happened to be just an hour north of Agra. Celebrations mostly take place from morning through early afternoon, so we woke up early and had our driver, Deepak, take us to that area.
Make peace with destroying whatever you wear out for Holi! I went to a thrift shop to get a white top and wore an old pair of elephant pants. They are still wearable after having washed them, but the color is never coming out. On the same note, don't bring anything too valuable. I still wanted nice photos, so I took my small Casio Exilim out with me instead of my expensive new Nikon, but I am still not happy that the Casio ended up damaged by the end of the day (still operates but shutters won't close, has some power issues).
Deepak took us to Vrindavan where he dropped us off at the entrance to a temple, and within minutes we were swarmed by people. When you're a foreigner in Asia, you get used to being approached for pictures everywhere (which I've always found inexplicable- what do you do with these? Frame them? Do your friends on Facebook go, "wow, I'm so jealous you met these strangers today"?) but this was next level. Nonstop mobs of locals. Every time we'd turn around there was a smartphone in our face and someone asking "One photo?" It was never one photo.
A single group would take 40 pictures, needing every combination of their friends plus solo shots for everyone. I couldn't tell who I'd already posed with and who was coming back up six more times. It probably took us an hour to take a walk around this fairly small temple, but luckily there were some empty spaces to the sides where we could catch a break. Fame is not all it's cracked up to be, people.
Our newfound celebrity status also got us plenty of color powder thrown our way. Most people take it in their hands and then physically rub it onto your face, but others will dump it right over your head. Multiple times I got it in my mouth and had to walk away to spit onto the ground. We did morph through a variety of colors over the course of the day though which are well documented throughout our photos.
Here's a "before" photo... the teal lipstick was all me.
Midway through... someone hit Lewis hard with that turquoise paste
On our way out of the temple, we ran into an elephant in Holi paint (I have a lot of feelings about the treatment of elephants in Asian countries so we did not contribute any money to the people handling it), and we also saw quite a few colorful dogs and cows out and about as well.
Deepak was waiting for us on the main street, somehow completely clean (Lewis did tip him extra for giving up the holiday for this job), and we left to drive to another spot. As we were coming up the main road, we saw a huge crowd lined up on either side of the street tossing powder at cars and carts passing through. It looked like a fun celebration area and I thought I could get some good festival photos, so we had him pull over and hop out.
Well, as bad as being mobbed at the temple was, it was ten times worse on this street. We were immediately pulled this way and that for more selfies and photos, but took some refuge over by a family on the street who we posed with.
We still attempted to walk up to the area where people were lined up; however, this was a bad move. A large group of men came with their phones and surrounded me, and in the chaos of them all trying to take photos and dump colors on me, I couldn't see or breathe through the powder, and one guy- there was no way of knowing which one- took the opportunity to grab my ass and then aggressively shove his hand in between my legs to the point of sexual assault.
I had already had another guy a few minutes beforehand push his hand down my shirt, and this was way too much. I was really upset and with a lot of effort shoved through the rest of them, told Lewis we needed to leave, and went straight back in the car. I felt totally violated and was genuinely trying not to cry at this point, and then some dude literally OPENS my car door to try taking photos with me! I told him no twice but he wouldn't leave, so I let him take the pictures just so I could get out of there (he was blocking the door but I wish I had slammed it in his face).
And this brings me to an important and not so fun point about Holi. It's a well known fact in India that a lot of men use the holiday as an opportunity to molest and assault women. It's especially easy due to the physical proximity and touching involved in the celebrations already. Indians will warn you about this and there are headlines about it in the news. If you are a female, I highly recommend you do not go out alone for this festival, or that you stick to more tourist-centric organized celebrations. I wanted to experience the holiday the way locals do (and I don't regret doing that, although the sad fact is I would not have if I weren't traveling with a man) but if I were to return for Holi again, I would go to a hostel or hotel arranged party. Our host in Goa said that their hostel hosts a closed party for backpackers where you can celebrate safely with other travelers and then swim afterwards, and I know a lot of tours and hotels will do similar things or take you out with a group so that you don't have to risk being harassed on the streets.
I really needed to calm down, so we tried to go for a drink, but Holi (at least in this region) is a dry holiday and nobody would be serving alcohol until 5 PM. Overall, we had made it less than two hours out in public for the celebrations. It was honestly draining. We had some food and tea at a spot nearby where it seemed like every other foreigner in the area had also gone to recover. I swear everyone else looked as exhausted as we were.
I couldn't handle any more Holi for the day, so Deepak took us on the four hour drive west to our next stop, Jaipur. We arrived at our hotel in the early evening, and the receptionist requested that we please shower before sitting on anything which we were happy to comply with. Powder came pouring out of my bra when I finally took it off. All of those clothes were put into a plastic bagged quarantine in my suitcase until we managed to do laundry the following week.
Holi was a totally unique and memorable experience, and I'd love to do it again in a different region or more likely at an arranged event. Just be careful and mindful of others taking advantage of the holiday to treat others disrespectfully and stay close to friends or a group. I do also think it would have been a ton more fun if we were left alone long enough to enjoy it, but it's just impossible to tone down that natural star factor, baby.
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