My World Tour:  Elephant Festival - Jaipur, India: Holi Festival

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The Hindu festival of Holi isn't dubbed the "Festival of Colors" for nothing.  Merrymakers stock up on water and colored gulal (powder, usually the bindi powder used for the mark on the center of a Hindu's forehead) and proceed to douse anything that moves (pedestrians, buses, rickshaws, even the holy cow gets splatted!).  Holi is the first full moon of spring on the vernal equinox (the Elephant festival is the celebration on the eve of Holi).  The organizers of the Elephant festival thought it would be fun for the tourist (non Indians) to start the Holi proceedings a few hours early as the moon came up.  Not only were there plenty of colored tourists, but there were plenty of fireworks as well.  In the typical India manner of no safety standards, the hot air bags of fire were launched and let fly and land wherever the wind takes them.  About 20 minutes later we saw someone's yard on fire.

Bruce and Julia, World Travelers and Adventure Seekers Extraordinaire.
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Revised: 05 Feb 2007 20:21:26 -0600 .