Holi, or the festival of love, frolic and colour is a favorite at the Chota Tingrai, Dinjoye and Durrung tea estates. It lasts for four days. It is a crazy fun time that has grown beyond its Hindu roots to be celebrated around the world.
The best-known part is Rangwali Holi, the free-for-all Festival of Colours. Groups carry drums and other musical instruments, go from place to place, sing and dance. People smear each other with colours which turns into a city-wide frolic. People visit family, friends and foes to throw coloured powders on each other, laugh and gossip, then share Holi delicacies.
Holi celebrates the arrival of Spring and the beginning of the harvest season. It represents the blossoming of love. It is a time for social interaction – to play, laugh, forgive, forget or repair broken relationships.
Water guns and water-filled balloons drench and colour each other. Everyone is fair game, friend or stranger, rich or poor, man or woman, children, and elders. The frolic and colour fight occur in the open streets, open parks, outside temples and office buildings. It can spring forth anywhere among anyone.
Photo Credit: India NewsThis festival is dedicated to Sri Krishna, one of the most widely revered and popular of all Indian divinities. Krishna is the eighth incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. An image of Krishna, richly adorned and besmeared with colored powder is taken out in a swinging palanquin, decorated with flowers, leaves, colored clothes and papers and paraded through the city.
The procession is accompanied by music, blaring conch shells, trumpets and shouts of 'Joi' (victory). The people share sweets and drinks, like home-made
curd and 'panchamrit' made with the five foods of Hindu worship: honey, liquid jaggery, cow milk, yogurt and ghee. Bhang, made from cannabis, is also popular throughout the festival.
Holi is a perfect time to visit Chota Tingrai and stay in our Guest Cottages. It is a perfect rest stop for our customers making plans to tour the gardens this year. The cottages at Chota Tingrai are also convenient to our orthodox gardens at Dinjoye and our CTC garden at our Durrung Estate. For more information on arranging a visit, talk to Georgie or Ryan.
The Chota Tingrai Tea Estate main bungalow