Pink and Red - the colours without which Holi would be incomplete

Holi series- Pink & Red, Oil on canvas " 8 x 8" inches                                  © 2011 Nayna Shriyan

Today I would like to share a most unique holi tradition with you . In the north eastern part of India lies the beautiful state of Manipur, in this state holi is called the 'Yaosang' festival, and the way they celebrate the festival is by by building bamboo huts called 'Yaosangs' are built by the side of the roads. The priests place the statue of Lord 'Chaitanya' inside and these are then worshipped. After the rituals are finished, the huts are set alight and as the huts burn, the people gathered around let out chants of 'Hari Bola' and 'He Hari" basically praising the god Krishna. Once the huts have burned down the holy ashes are smeared on people's foreheads and also the doorways of  the houses. People then celebrate by showering each other with gulaal. Gulaal is the traditional colour used during holi by people all over the country, it is a glorious deep pink much like the central portion of my painting for today. Well I couldn't resist, after all who would play holi without a generous helping of 'Gulaal" :D