Holi

My students enjoying Holi!

Holi is a Hindu holiday that falls on the day after the full moon in March each year. It marks the end of winter in India. Holi is sometimes called the Festival of Color, because on Holi everyone in India throws paint at each other! 

To prepare, folks buy gulal, which are powdered paints in rich colors of pink, magenta, red, yellow and green. Three days before Holi families get together to sprinkle a little of the gulal powders on each other, to share love and blessings. 

On the day of Holi the whole country goes wild with people laughing and running in the streets. People smear each other with powder, drench each other with buckets of paint, and spray paint with long pistons (like super-soakers). They also fill water balloons with paint! People often show respect for elders by sprinkling dry powder on their feet. By the end of the day everyone is covered with color- old people, children, men, women, rich and poor. Holi creates a feeling of equality in a country with strong disparity.

Agenda Today:

1. Make Malpua:

Malpua is a very addictive treat from North India especially prepared during the Holi festival. It's a like a fried donut with a slightly spicy flavor. 

We like to start these before the celebration so they are ready to fry and eat (with hot tea) while we are warming up. 

Ingredients: 

• 1-1/2 c. coarsely ground whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. fennel seeds
• 10 crushed peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder.
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 3/4-c. water
• 1/4-c. yogurt
• oil for frying

Yield: 12 pancakes- 

1- Combine the flour, fennel seeds, peppercorns, and baking powder. 

2- Dissolve sugar in water. Add yogurt and mix into the flour mixture to form a thick batter. Set aside for 45 minutes.

3- Heat 1" of oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Pour a spoonful of the batter into oil, spread into a thin round shape, and fry until golden brown.

4- Drain on paper. Serve hot.

2. Have a paint throwing celebration:
March in my area can be rainy and cold, but we almost always manage to celebrate Holi with paint throwing! It's just so much fun! Here's how I organize things: 

• Everyone wears clothes they don’t care about, and brings a change. I stack large old towels by the backdoor. Most of us choose to go barefoot.
• I pour out small cups of powdered tempera paints, and each person chooses one color.
• I gather empty spray bottles, and a large bucket of warm water and we each find a bottle that sprays to our satisfaction.
• We gather in a circle outside in my backyard, around the bucket of water. I put a good quantity of red food coloring into it, and we fill our spray bottles. 
• We set the ground rules: No spraying in the face. Let us know if you don’t want others to put paint in your hair. The back porch is a safety zone. Have fun and make sure everyone else is having fun! 

We begin with a ritual sprinkling of dry powder- one at a time we dip a finger in our powder and smear it on each person, too honor our friendship. Then we begin to spray and throw the colored water and dry powder at each other! It’s a blast!