Holi, widely known as the Hindu festival of colors, is a joyful annual celebration at the advent of spring. Typically Holi is observed in March in India, Nepal, other South Asian countries and across the diaspora. The festival celebrates love and signifies a time of rebirth and rejuvenation — a time to embrace the positive and let go of negative energy.
For one of Holi’s most well-known traditions, people dress in all white, come out to the street and throw colored powder known as Gulal or Holi powder at each other. The pigments and colors of joy all symbolize different things. Blue represents the color of Lord Krishna’s skin, green: spring & rebirth, red: marriage or fertility, & yellow: commonly used in ritual and ceremony & symbolize auspiciousness.
After reading so many books about Holi during story time, we invited the children to explore and celebrate by:
1. Gulal Self Portrait Process Art: First the children drew themselves with a black marker, after that they were invited to dip tights filled with corn kernels into fluorescent paint & create a kaleidoscope of colors on their portraits.
2. Festival of Colors Party: All the children were asked to wear white shirts, we placed holi powder, and invited the children to throw the powder. If they felt uncomfortable doing so we placed baby dolls as well.
