Wednesday, March 27, 2013

HAPPY HOLI!

Today is the festival of Holi in the Hindu calendar.  There is a long story about someone who had the power of walking through fire and a jealous father, but after that it gets really confusing.  On Tuesday evening in Rajasthan there were small fires and effigies of Holi or the brother, not sure which, and then they spend the day  throwing or squirting paint all over each other. I have no idea how the throwing of the paint is related to the girl who could walk through fire, but it's a big deal in Rajasthan. It sounds like something out of Animal House, so S. and I weren't sorry to miss it, because we're in the South this week.   The only Holi being celebrated here is Holy Week, as we're in Kerala, the state which is about 18% Christian.








For me the highlight of Holi was the empanada-like sweet called gujia, which you see featured here.  My driver got me some to take on the plane since we were going to miss the festival, and I had low expectations for them, since most of the Indian sweets are not of my taste.  However, when I bit into this, a gush of honey greeted me, and it was followed by a fruit and nut mixture inside that tasted a lot like baklava.  Really good baklava.  It was a reason to be sorry to miss the paint.

No comments:

Post a Comment