Holi - Why I chose to Opt for Natural Colors
HOLI 2021
Most people try to keep their traditions going - any tradition - because they have had some beautiful memories associated with it. Holi is one such holiday for me. I remember my house being filled with the aroma of festival food and the my heart being filled with the enthusiasm of meeting my friends and cousins and spend this beautiful holiday together - just eating and laughing and having fun!
If you don’t know about this holiday, Holi is celebrated in India to mark the beginning of spring. People get together and color each other with bright colors of spring. Usually these colors are made of synthetic substances that can be harmful to the skin, cause eye pain, degrade hair quality, and can also cause health complications. But like all the other aspects of life, people are slowly realizing how important it is to use natural colors over synthetic.
Even before Aroha was born, I had these thoughts in my mind as to how I’ll pass on these beautiful traditions down to her and how I’ll make this holiday fun for her. But the synthetic color aspect of it had me worried. So last year when it was Aroha’s first Holi, I researched a lot and found out about the organic alternatives.
I was relieved to find that there are quite a few brands who make organic colors and that this holiday that I love so much is also going eco-concious. Usually the colors that are used to play Holi are in powdered form but I couldn’t take the chance of my 5-month old inhaling it.
That’s when I found this organic colors usually used for finger painting. You just need to add a little water to the color powder to make a paste and apply as you may. The colors are made from corn/potato starch mixed with spinach, turmeric, beets and other organic materials. So you don’t even have to worry about your little ones putting it in their mouth. Finding this amazing product made my mom heart so happy. Now I could focus on the fun part of the celebration without worrying about the harmful effects on my baby.
We all wore tie-dye clothes to make it more colorful and festive. This year we continued this tradition of wearing tie-dyes but we opted for traditional Indian-wear this time.
This time around, Aroha was a little more conscious about what’s happening and we were a little worried that she might not like colors on her face, or will get scared seeing colors on our faces. But she was such a sport and loved every bit of it. I hope next year we’ll continue this sweet tradition of ours and maybe this time I’ll be able to tell my baby some stories from my childhood.
HOLI 2022