What Holi is complete without Thandai, a traditional drink made of milk, ground seeds and nuts and lots of spices! Nothing like a cool drink after being covered head to toe in all the colors of the rainbow! Recipe below.
Holi colors of the rainbow
Thandai - a traditional Holi favorite!
Water bombs! Kids invent another great strategy to distribute color and play Holi!
Holi water bombs!
After being hit with a water bomb!
A list of Chicago Holi festivities for 2010:
Holi Celebrations at the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago on Feb 28th.
Holi 2010 at the Shrine. DJs Warp and Jimmy Singh spin at a bash celebrating India’s annual festival of colors. March 5th. More… »
For those of us concerned about recycling, and also trying to avoid the toxic chemicals in holi color, both wet and dry, here are some fun pointers on how to make your own Holi color. A safe and natural Eco and Environmentally friendly Holi for 2010!
Make your own Holi colours!
Holi revelers will be thrilled to know that you can make simple natural colors in your kitchen! Here are some very easy recipes to make natural colors: More… »
Holi festival 2010 celebrations in New York:
The famous Phagwah Parade celebrating Holi in Richmond, Queens on March 7th, 2010. The Phagwah Parade in Richmond Hill, Queens, New York is the biggest celebration in North America! Phagwah, or Holi, is the Indo-Caribbean Hindu celebration of the new year. Every spring, the Sunday after the first full moon of the Hindu calendar, Phagwah paints the streets as kids and families “color” one another with gulal and powder and chase away the winter grays amidst much joy and gaiety!
Holi 2010 Party in New Jersey. Feb. 27th, 2010. Page 3 Parties & Bollywood Funk NYC present HOLI 2010 Bollywood Ishtyle . Celebrate Holi with dry colors and Bollywood music by DJs Naveen & Madman. Drink Specials ALL night. More… »
Celebrating Holi with Krishna and Radha
Krishna and Radha’s Holi: A Festival of Colours
One spring, it is said that, young Krishna complained to his mother Yashoda about Radha, his girlfriend, being very fair skinned, while he was dark skinned. Yashoda playfully suggested that Krishna apply color on Radha’s face and see how her skin would change. Krishna loved this idea and smeared his Radha with gulal (colors) of all hues. She in turn did the same, and before long the entire village joined in to play with colors. Thus began the Holi celebrations, as the Festival of Colors! Krishna and Radha’s Holi festivities became legendary, and to this day, we celebrate the Holi festival with colors of all hues!
Story of Holi in the words of an Amara Kid:
“I really like the story of Holi because it is the story of a cruel king’s evil sister who got burnt.” (My kids love violence more than I care to admit!)
Once there was a very evil, demon king who had a long name- Hrinyakashpu. Let’s call him ‘H’. He hated God, especially Vishnu- who is a very powerful God and can take whatever form he would like to.
H, the demon king was also very strong and he believed that he was stronger than Vishnu. He asked everyone to worship him instead of Vishnu. But he had a son called Prahlad who would not listen to H. Prahlad wanted to worship only Vishnu and told his father that Vishnu was most powerful. H was very angry with his son and ordered his soldiers to throw Prahlad down a hill. H was also very cruel, you see. But Vishnu saved Prahalad at the last moment. More… »
HindiGym – a Fun, Innovative Effort by a Mom to teach kids Hindi
Every Indian parent living abroad desires that their kids get exposed to Indian culture and their national language, Hindi. However, lack of bilingual and illustrative resources and books make teaching a new language to these international kids a struggle. Many parents are always on the lookout for resources to teach Hindi to the kids. To fill this void and to make learning Hindi fun, easy and entertaining, Aarti Chandnani started HindiGym. HindiGym focuses on providing free, interactive, illustrated, bi-lingual and entertaining educational resources for learning Hindi. HindiGym also published various books that make learning Hindi easy, fun and exciting for little kids, More… »
Holi Festival 2010 in the Bay Area:
There are several Holi celebrations in the Bay Area every year. We’ve been to the RANA, the Sunnyvale Temple’s Holi and to Asha Stanford’s Holi celebrations over the years. The Asha Stanford Holi is unique because they have a kids’ Holi playing area with water play, Holi colors etc. The Sunnyvale Temple Holi is also fun and there is no water play. We’d recommend checking them all out, if you can, with a bunch of friends.
Sunnyvale Temple Holi 2010, Sat. Feb 27th, Sunnyvale
Holi Festival celebrations in San Francisco, Sat. Feb 27th, 12-3 pm, Dolores Park, San Francisco
“Hoja Rangeela Re – a Bollywood Party Holi Ishtyle”, February 20th, 9.30pm, Avalon Nightclub , 777 Lawrence Expressway , Santa Clara BUY TIX
Bay Area Youth Vaishnav Parivar’s Holi Garba on February 27th, 8pm, at Centerville Junior High School Gymnasium , 37720 Fremont Blvd, Fremont BUY TIX
RANA’s Rajasthan Holi 2010, March 6th, 11am, Sunnyvale Baylands Park, 999 E Caribbean Dr, Sunnyvale
Asha Stanford’s Holi Festival celebrations on March 27th, 11am – 3pm, Sandhills Field, Stanford. Tix not available yet; stay tuned!
Some fun photos of our past Holis celebrations:
Holi in the Park
Suhail and Rohan playing Holi in a park in San Francisco
Amara Kids celebrating Holi in the park at Sunnyvale!
Holi masti!
Amara Mom in full on Holi mood!
Holi is fun with pichkaris and colored water!
Amara Kids having fun at Holi!
Sign up for member specials and offers
