Red and yellow and pink and green, orange and purple and… all in your face… THAT´S the Holi and yeah that´s FUN! The festival of colours is a good time to go to Nepal. A very good time. In march the spring has already reached Kathmandu Valley, the sun is warmly shining, flowers are beautifully blossoming and with spring the first season of travellers coming to the world´s rooftop begins. Not these kind of travellers that you meet at the beaches of the beautiful islands around the planet. Nope, we are talking about the Himalayas, not the easiest place to travel to and not the easiest to live in either. Life out and up there is rough, so close to the world´s highest mountains. But during all the nepali festivals – and there are a million of them (a bit exaggerated, but almost) – the hard life and all the sorrows are forgotten. That´s the good thing about all the festive dates: the focus is on celebration and the joy of life.
So most of the shops are closed, the people are on the streets with smiling faces (which you can always find in Nepal) waiting for the moment to play the Holi, means the moment when the streetfight of colours is opened 🙂
The Hindu festival is generally celebrated for a week, but the main activities happen in the first three days. Do you know the Holi of India? Well it´s kind of same. Nepal only has a few traditions that are different from it´s big southern neighbour country. First day: people put up a decorated wooden pole and keep it burning all night, which symbolizes the burning of the old year. Dressed in their best clothes, nepali women circle around the pole to pray for the blessings.
Second day: to symbolize the death of demon Holika special bonfires are lit. The is colorful one! During this day, people throw everything colorful they can find at each other like colour powder, coloured water (as water ballon bombs, water guns or simply in baskets emptied on your head when you ´re passing the balcony) just everything that makes this day a chaotic but vivid story to tell. It´s a big get-together with a lot of drinks and live music in the pubs and bars around, when you have the pleasure to be in the capital city called Kathmandu but you also can enjoy the Holi festival in Pokhara, Narayangarh, Dharan or everywhere around the country.
Dressing advice: Get yourself a white Tshirt to make it the most colourful one! A Tshirt-Design-Competition can be fun. Put the white one or even an old one on, go out there, run the streets, play with the colours, enjoy the custom and make your dress a rainbow or become one, it doesn´t really matter. Because what matters is: HAVE FUN!
And as same as you should celebrate the parties as they come, you should throw the colours as you get them. Playing Holi is holy because having fun is. Namaste!
HAPPY HOLI! 21th March 2019. Next date: 9th of March 2020
This is how we play the Holi. Wanna join next time? Say hello@adventureandyou.de
All you need is… aaall the colours you can grab; your best buddies, heart homies or new friends you´ve made along the ways, clothes that you don´t care about (in optimum case white ones), good mood and music. And these kind of vibrant good vibes will be the result. That´s promised! That´s the Holi guarantee.
You want to trek´n´travel the Himalaya region, starting and ending in Kathmandu but don´t know where to go and stay the best? I´ve been travelling to Nepal ten times already. Let me know your dates of free time that you have for a new adventure and I´ll create the one you are looking for. It´s supporting you to get your travel as individual and matching as you would like to have it and it supports my friends and the country aswell by having more people coming which helps the economy raising up a bit.
Say hello@adventureandyou.de
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