Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, March 25:

Colours. That’s what Holi is all about. And Kathmanduites went all out today to celebrate it.

Family, friends, neighbours and even strangers smeared one another with abir. Many were seen drenching people with buckets of water or hitting others with golas (water-filled balloons). Holi celebrates the slaying of a demon marking the triumph of good over evil. According to a Hindu myth, demon king Hiranayakashyapu ordered his sister Holika to kill her son Prahlad. She tried to do so by stepping into a fire with Prahlad in her arms. But she was burnt to ashes and the boy came out unsinged. Though Holi falls during the dry season when it is difficult even to get enough drinking water, Kathmanduites do no let this bother them. They store buckets and buckets of water just for Holi.

“It’s an once-a-year festival. So I did not mind collecting water from our tap at 3.30 in the morning,” said Krishna Maharjan, a Sanepa resident. Though the government issues notices every year saying that any person found forcefully throwing water or abir at someone unwilling, will be punished, no one takes notice of the government notices. As Maharjan said: “No one minds if we throw water on them because it is Holi.” But many, especially girls, are victimised by many under cover of celebrating Holi. Women were hardly seen in the streets today. The festival ends with the local residents taking the colourful pole called cheer, erected a week prior to Holi at Hanuman Dhoka, to a river and setting it on fire. In the night, Itumbahal locals prepare a huge dinner for the demon Gurmapa at Tundikhel. A buffalo is slaughtered to feed it. Legend has it that the demon used to eat children and a young man named Keshchandra promised to feed him once a year to stop him from eating the children.