Holi

So to wrap up the podcast, Diwali is one of Hinduism's most widely celebrated festivals, but it's one of many.

And as a matter of fact, spring has this festival of colors known as Holi.

Friends and families will gather to toss brightly colored powder and splash this colored water, celebrating the arrival of spring and the triumph of good over evil, like Diwali.

Holi is another Hindu tradition.

But Diwali, right? It began in ancient India, and there's no single date when the holiday started and no single story behind it.

Why? Because, again, traditions grew over many centuries, and many different people in Hindu traditions took the holiday to mean different things.

Since we lost my father, we have regarded New Year's Day as of more importance than ever, because it is the day on which he opened the sanctuary of Lily Cottage and preached there his last sermon.

We have a festival which is sometimes held in February, sometimes in March, according to the moon, called Holi.

It was founded in honor of the Hindu god Krishna, and is one of the most enjoyable days in a Hindu household.

Buckets and huge tumblers are filled with rose water, which is colored with red powder.

San Fermin keeps it, and that's precisely why it's still compelling.

Now Holi, which is a spring festival, not a drinking festival per se, but it belongs on this list because of bhang.

Bhang is a cannabis-infused drink, traditionally made with milk, spices, and ground cannabis leaves, and it's consumed especially in North India during Holi as a religious offering.

Holi marks the victory of good over evil, the arrival of spring, and it's the festival of colors.

But the adult celebration, particularly in places like Varanasi and Mathura, involves banglasi and bangtandai, and the intoxication is understood as devotional.

It's Shiva's drink.

just beer.

And it's also a reminder that the category is ancient.

I've always just been closer to the religion.

So at home it was Diwali and Holi, but at school it was always Easter and Christmas.

So it didn't feel like such a cultural shock to me.

However, I also know that there could be some feats where I would just not be able to gel because I have no context, no introduction.

... that's the inference.

But this is some weird place where everybody's high on bhang and playing Holi, and, like, Shah Rukh is, like, sexually harassing all the white people that he finds, [laughs] right?

[laughs]

And he's, like, putting, like, whole...

What was I going to say? Do you want to talk about, I really enjoy the second time that we see Imli Kabuta, which is when Rajkumar and Dilip Kumar have actually like, like, made up together.

I also really enjoy the Holi thing, where, like, Dilip Kumar is like, no one ever puts Holi on me.

I would never let that happen.

Nobody has ever done that.

In cultures all around the world, rituals mark the turning of the seasons.

There's Holi, India's festival of color.

There's Hanami in Japan, when the cherry blossom comes.

And sometimes these festivals cross-pollinate, like Jack in the Green here in England.

I give you an order to hit me.

You did the same thing at the Holi party that day.

And your father replied back to me.

Aren't you sorry for that? He's Kaleen, the King of Mirzapur.