The biggest noisiest most colorful party in the entire world happens every year on the second full moon of the lunar calendar when close to one billion souls in India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, that's almost every man, woman and child, party for 3 nights and 3 days. It's total anarchy, chaos, madness, and heaven for the entire Indian sub continent, and it's name is Holi.
It actually starts two weeks before with a festival called Shiva Ratri dedicated to Lord Shiva, the God of Creation and Destruction, Lord of the Dance. On the night of the second new moon of the lunar year when the new moon first shows its horns is the signal for it to begin. Some families stay at home to celebrate, some go to temple along with all the Sadhus, Babas, Yogi’s, Swami’s and other assorted Holy men and women of India. The ones that stay at home will say prayers, burn incense, sing songs, chant mantras, do puja (a mixture of ghee, milk, and honey that they then smeared on the Shiv-Ling and other manifestation of Shiva), put tika (colored chalk and flower petals) on their foreheads. Then eat and drink bhanj for the next night and day. Every member in the house hold from the youngest child to the oldest adult will partake of this holy sacrament, get high and worship Shiva, The Good God. According to archaeologist, Shiva has been continually worshipped in this manner non-stop for the last 15,000 years making him the oldest God in existence. OM NAMA SHIVA!
At the temples things are a bit wilder. When the moon shows itself, the priest lights a giant bonfire that will keep burning for the entire festival. In fact, the admission to the temple is wood. When the fire is lit a great cheer arises from the faithful and is followed by much dancing, singing and chanting. All the Holy Men assemble and bhang is passed out to be eaten or drank. Chillums are packed with a mixture of tobacco, ganja and charras. A live coal is dropped into the chillum, BOM SHIVA, BOM BOLI! The chillum is passed around, where first the holy smoke is offered to the God then is sucked into the lungs of man. Huge billows of the Holy Smoke come wafting out of the temples and you can get high just standing down wind from one. This continues as long as Shiva Ratri lasts. The music gets louder, the dancing wilder and the singing and chanting more intense. Everyone is High on Shiva and his Holy Host. This is also one of the major holidays for the Nega Babas. They come from their caves, huts, trees and their wanderings to assemble by the thousands, all naked with uncombed hair down to the ground. They're covered in ash to celebrate this most Holy of Nights and when the sun rises the revel still doesn't stop. The tired are replaced by renewed and the tired rest, eat more bhang, smoke more chillums and are renewed themselves. The dancing, music, singing and chanting go on for the entire day and into the next night, and still, it doesn't stop. It just gets more intense, more Holy. This goes on until the second morning, only then does the priest allow the fire to go out and this is the end of Shiva Ratri. Though most of the revelers are still so high from the 36 hours of worship that it will take them a couple days to come down and leave the temple. And this is just a prolog to Holi which last twice as long and is much more intense.
Holi, dedicated to Lord Krishna an incarnation of Vishnu, the God of Preservation, starts on the first night of the next full moon. After it's completely dark and the full moon has risen, all the fires in all the households in all of India are extinguished and everyone in every village assemble in a field closes to the headman’s house where a great pile of wood has been placed. When the full moon reaches it's zenith, the headman and the village priest say a prayer then the headman lights the bonfire. The people immediately start dancing and singing around the fire. This goes on for a couple hours, then each family takes a faggot from the fire and returns home to light this years household fire which will burn continuously until next years Holi. The next morning all are ready to play Holi. The men and the children are armed and the women have prepared the Pasad, the Holi food. Everyone puts their oldest white clothes on and wait.
The children are the first out of the houses at dawn, they form a mob and wait for the first adults to show their faces and when they do, the children attack showing no mercy. They're armed with every kind of squirt gun filled with every color liquid, red, green, fuchsia, purple, vermilion and turquoise. In their hands is a paste made of mustard oil and all the dye colors. They squirt the adults and rub the paste into the adult’s hair, face and clothes. They attack with viciousness following the adults until the adults run for shelter into a friends home but there's no refuge in there either. For their friends have paste that they rub all over each other. They have powdered colored chalk in all the bright colors that they throw on each other. And they have buckets of dye that they pour all over one another. After everyone is soaked and colored from head to toe, the women bring out the Pasad. Everything's that eaten or drank contains bhang. The children come in for the Pasad and are fed. They also remind the adults that they're waiting just outside and that the adults have to visit all of their friends to take Pasad with them in the next 3 days. The children have plenty of time. While they're waiting for the adults to reappear, they amuse themselves in other ways. There's each other to color and there's also the cows, goats, dogs, pigs, horses, chickens and donkeys to color, and there's the cars, trucks and tractors, the outside walls of all of the houses to color, even the trees and rocks to color.
The musicians of the village form a band for a parade of music and dance through the village streets and the children attack with glee. The Priests and Holy Men come out into the streets to chant and pray and to bless the people, and the children show them no mercy. Even mothers and grandparents, the most venerated members of the village, are joyfully attacked by their own progeny. No one and nothing is safe. All are colored and all are Holy.
This continues throughout the whole day and late into the night. Friends are visited, bhang is eaten, color is anointed. After the evening meal is finished the children are put to bed to rest up for tomorrow. The women go into the kitchen, but instead of cleaning up, they turn on each other, they throw, pour and smear color all over one another shrieking with delight. The men retire to a common room to eat more bhang, smoke chillums, drink homemade wine and spirits and to play cards and gamble. This goes on until everyone is just to high to stay awake any longer. Quiet descends on the village for a few hours.
At dawn, everybody gets up washes off yesterdays color, puts on their now multi-colored clothing, has breakfast and is ready to play Holi for another day which is wilder than the first. More music, more dancing, more color, more food and more bhang. Everyone is Holy, intoxicated with life and possessed by the Great God Krishna. No one can do any wrong. The second day is more intense that the first. The people are still high from the first day and still have the energy to party. The men start smoking, drinking and gambling earlier. Everything becomes a blur of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch with no individual meanings. The second day then ends like the first.
By the third day only the hardy are out in the streets. The children make a half hearted attempt to form a mob and attack. The women and older folks stay in their homes to eat and rest. Only the young men are still out there, they still have the energy. They are still Holy. They have no one else to play Holi with but each other and they do so with a vengeance. They still eat the bhang, smoke the chillums, drink the alcohol and cover each other with Holy color. By sundown of the third day even they have had enough and go home to rest.
Kelly and I have played Holi in India a few times. It's our favorite holiday festival in any country in the whole world. Total chaos reigns for 3 nights & 3 days. We immerse ourselves in it and are renewed by it. Most tourist hide in their hotels for Holi, it's too wild and strange for them. But if you can get into it and fully participate in it you will experience India and its culture at it's greatest.