Holi Festival in Kathmandu

After Samuel flew back to Germany, I went back to Kathmandu. There I met another German intern to celebrate Holi with her.

Holi is the “Festival of Colors”. According to the Hindu roots, it celebrates the victory of good over evil. The Holi festival also marks the beginning of spring and represents the victory of life over the cold and dark winter.

During the celebrations, people rub colorful paint powder on each other's faces while saying "Happy Holi." This happens sometimes more and sometimes less gently. For example, the first time I got paint on my face, I was attacked from behind with dark green paint. Since I wasn't expecting that, I immediately found out that the color powder burned my nose and didn't taste good either.

By the way, the colors represent the colorful and blooming nature that will come in spring. In addition to the color powder, people also sprinkle water on each other on Holi. This is also partly colored in one color. That's why on this day you have to be careful of attacks from a distance with water bombs and water squirt guns.

The way from our accommodation to Durbar Square and later back again was a pure shower of color for us. We were lucky that we were able to get one of the last seats at a temple. So we were able to watch the goings-on from enough distance. It was noticeable that the crowds were mostly men. Surprisingly, there was no music playing in the square, but people were still jumping around like crazy and the crowd was always moving. A man who dressed like a sadhu often attracted people's attention by undressing himself and having himself soaped with the colored powder. In addition, as European women, we were an attraction for many of the Chinese tourists.

Overall, it was great that we were able to experience the Holi Festival at its original location. Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that we were very lucky with our seats at the temple, as we were protected from attacks there.