The exuberant festival of colors involves everything from colors, water balloons, Pitchkaris, bright powders, bang, happiness and whatnot! Holi is definitely one of the festival where geysers of colors are shot in the air, making your place look beautifully messy. The atmosphere is filled with fun, frolic, mischief and most of all – COLORS and HAPPINESS! The festival also symbolizes victory and myriad colors symbolize hope.
But with colors and fun, there comes the flip side to it. Holi also gives way to a lot of water wasting and duplicate color production, which spoils skin. In a place like India, the most important drought is the water drought and there are a few places where water has become luxury more than a necessity. Well, we are not bursting your fun bubble! How would you like to still have all this fun and make it easier on the environment. Here are some amazing ways to celebrate eco friendly holi.
Ways to Celebrate Holi
1Rang De Basanti – make your own colors
Making your own colors at home is the easiest way to play a safe and eco-friendly Holi. All you have to do is to pick up the natural home products than using chemical ones that are already added in the powders. Your friends and relatives are going to be so happy with this kind of innovation from you> Why? Because basically there are two reasons – One, you are making sure that the usage of water is less when the holi colors are made at home. There are various colored products in our kitchen like Gram flour, turmeric powder, fuller’s earth, sandalwood powder or henna powder that would be helpful in making myriad colors for you without any compromise in the color area. Apart from this, you can also use vegetables and flowers that produce colors like beetroot, marigold, gulmohar etc.
The second one that your people would thank you is for the unknown beauty facial that you would give. Since all of these are homemade powders, the chances of skin smoothening while applying this on each other’s face are more. They smell great and gentle and make it a good face pack.
2Go Colorless
Think about it! Though Holi is all about colors and water, how would it be if you don’t waste water and colors and opt for a simple Tilak on each other’s forehead. This way, you can avoid all the mess and still use different colors to keep a Tilak on each other’s forehead. It makes it special and stands out.
Know how to play Safe Holi
3Phoolon Ki Holi (Play Holi with flowers)
Nowadays a lot of people have become so eco-friendly conscious that even in the Northern states, people prefer playing Holi using less colors and more of something that avoids wastage. Playing Holi with flowers can be one of the easiest and the most pretty ways. In places like Lucknow, Pushkar, etc, people indulge in playing Holi with flowers. They firstly, dress up Lord Krishna and Radha with flower petals ushering a new beginning of life. The atmosphere becomes electric and entertaining when drums and songs are played. There are a few rules to follow when it comes to playing Holi with flowers. People use only used flowers or dried ones and don’t dump it in water.
4How about waterless Holi
Imagine how it would be when there are no water balloons, no Pitchkaris or paints! Playing Holi waterless, is also super fun. You can use as much colors you want to, but, water restriction is something that has to be remembered. After playing or throwing colors at each other, you can go and wash your face, hands with water. This could be used while cleaning up and not while playing.
5Holi, the original way
If you still can’t accept and change the way you have been playing Holi from your childhood, then try to make sure that every single drop counts. Here are some tips to play Holi, the normal way
1. Try to use one bucket only for one person and avoid using balloons or plastic bags since both of them are heavy when weighed down by the water. It will easily hurt other people and the plastic covers definitely litter the
2. Set aside the buckets of water you would be needing in prior. Pre deciding your celebrations will help you figuring out how much water you would need. If you set aside, it will easy to stick to that and not waste more than that.
3. Play in a place designated only for playing Holi. This way you wouldn’t have to make the entire house dirty and untidy. If you play in the house, you would have to clean the place unnecessarily. Instead, kids , parents and youngsters can designate each place for them.
4. Scrubbing and cleaning the floor becomes a major part of playing Holi. So, try to spread a polyester or water resistant properties to avoid dark spots or stains so that you don’t have to waste time, energy and water for the same.
5. Wiping the floor with a detergent works magic when it comes to cleaning the floor. Take a bucket of soapy water, mix it with detergent and use the sponge to rub and scrub the floor instead of throwing water all over the place. Using washing soda helps for harder stains. Sponge and plain cloth with a little water can do the magic of cleaning.
Holi is definitely one of the most amazing festivals that can spread joy amongst the people. While it could be fun and enjoyable, let us also think about those people who consider as a luxury for daily purpose. By keeping them in mind, we would be able to support and enjoy eco-friendly Holi, yet have the share of fun!
Go Eco-Friendly!
-Pavithra Ravi
