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NEW DELHI,INDIA, March 26, 2005 : Millions of people in large parts of India Saturday celebrated the Holi festival with music, dance and delicacies to herald the arrival of spring. In the capital, men, women and children took a break from their everyday chores to boisterously join the celebrations by smearing colored powder on each other amid shouts of “Holi Hai!” (It’s Holi!). The celebrations were at their colorful best at Brindavan, the birthplace of Lord Krishna, and all across the northern states. Holi is also celebrated in West Bengal, Gujarat and Maharashtra.



In Punjab, the Nihang sect of Sikh warriors Saturday stole the show at the annual Hola Mohalla celebrations at the Sikh holy city of Anandpur Sahib, 80 km from state capital Chandigarh. Dressed in their traditional attire – mostly dark blue, knee-length kurtas, turbans running into several metres tied around their heads and carrying traditional weapons like swords and spears – the Nihangs were present during the two-day celebrations in large numbers. Hola Mohalla is celebrated by Sikhs to coincide with the Hindu Holi festival.



In the national capital, the roads for once seemed to have more pedestrians than vehicles as people walked around greeting each other. “My children should know what it means to be a part of a community. Holi teaches you that,” said Anuj Gupta, a travel agent in south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar area. Gupta himself was part of a huge group of people singing and dancing in the market complex to the tune of the Bollywood classic “Rang Barse…”. On a normal day, such a crowd would have resulted in chaos and heated exchanges in the complex but with shops closed Saturday people had a run of the place – and the crowds grew larger by the hour. As television channels beamed images of Holi celebrations from across the nation, the spirit infected virtually everyone.

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