The Holi festival is the Hindu holiday of colors celebrating the arrival of spring and the winter harvest.
I used the Ali Edwards bond story kit and the March Studio Calico kit here. I typed my journaling with extra spaces to fit the stamps in. The rainbow is made from patterned paper and I think it would look cute on a St. Patrick's Day layout, or any spring themed project.
The journaling reads:
Holi is probably one of the most special holidays for our family. We have so much fun together. We get messy, dousing each other in color. We laugh, chasing each other.
Growing up in the US, away from all my extended family with two working parents, and a mom who worked almost every single holiday, we didn’t celebrate them in a big way. So I never learned how other people did most things. I could see the decorations, and had some small inkling of the special food but didn’t really understand the time that people put into it. The thing that I really never saw was the ways that families would spend time together. That is something I am still learning. How holidays make spaces for families to create special memories together.
I had seen my parents pictures of them celebrating Holi together in India. It has such a magic around it. And always seemed so romantic to me, since their pictures were taken as newlyweds.
When Ryan and I got married we took our first trip to India together and got to play Holi with each other for the first time but we didn’t play it again for many years. Not until Avinash was born and we moved to Houston. They play Holi in a big way there! We haven’t stopped since. In Houston we always played with our close friends Garima and Sameer. After Nandini was born we played Holi outside on our patio a few days later. A new tradition was created and the kids and I would play colors out there all the time. In Austin we wasted no time finding a temple to play Holi together. We played Holi at Nandini’s birthday party in the park one year. Her classmates were so delighted to get experience the holiday with us. The kids loved being able to share their culture with their friends too. The next year I surprised the kids after school at the same park with color. We ran around, just the four of us getting messy and having a blast.
I am still figuring out how to be a good Mom. I want the best for my family. I want a strong bond between us and our children that will last a lifetime. I want them to know we will always be there to share in joys and sorrows, no matter how big or how small. Holi has become an amazing time for our family to connect and I am so glad it is such an important tradition for us now. Avinash and Nandini look forward to it every year. Lakshman has always had fun with Holi, getting messy and throwing color but I think this will be the first year he really can remember it and I can’t wait. Holi Hai!!
Check out another fun and colorful hybrid project:
December Daily | Handmade Holidays Day 1
What an amazing story to share!! Love the photos! It sure looks like you were all having fun!!
ReplyDeleteI love this holiday- if it wasn't so problematic to celebrate it without appropriate cultural context I would participate every year. Utah has a temple in Spanish Fork which has an even each year. We went the first year we moved here but have skipped since because we felt is wasn't celebrated authentically- temple members do their best but when thousands on non believers descend to your grounds in the space of a few hours a lot of that context will get lost. This is another beautiful set of pages.
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