Holi.

Holi is the Festival of Colours, celebrated by principally Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, in a large number of countries. It is held at the end of winter, which is March 1st this year. I came across this wonderful festival through reading about India, which I am currently totally absorbed by. There are several stories surrounding the celebrations, all of which are charming and magical. One rendition follows that Kamadeva, a god of love's body was destroyed when he shot his weapon at Shiva, a major Hindu deity, in order to disrupt his meditation and help Parvati, a Hindu goddess, to marry Shiva. All-powerful Shiva subsequently opened his third eye and looked upon Kamadeva. The gaze was so powerful that Kama's body was reduced to ashes. For the sake of Kama's wife, Shiva restored him, but only as a mental image, representing the true emotional and spiritual state of love rather than physical lust. The Holi bonfire is believed to be celebrated in commemoration of this event. I urge you to read the other stories as well, as they are quite different.

Holi is a festival of radiance in the universe. During this festival, followers believe that different waves of radiance traverse the universe, thereby creating various colours that nourish and complement the function of respective elements in the atmosphere. In celebration, people throw coloured powders and coloured water at each other.

I am in awe of how wonderful this is. I think it captures the jubilance that people feel when we finally reach the beginning of spring and summer after a long cold winter. I'm sure all Seasonal Affective Disorder sufferers would find this especially alluring! We have so much to learn from other cultures.

Turning to a new topic of interest, I am currently fascinated by the beautiful shapes of smoke and powder. Reactions between chemicals produce wonderful ethereal shapes.

Both reactions above are the combination of Aluminium and Bromine

These remind me of a photograph of Leon Diaper that I was looking at on the Dazed and Confused magazine website. He says that he searches for the romance within a subject, and I guess I can draw parallels between that outlook and my blog. Here is one of his works:

(http://www.dazeddigital.com/Photography/article/3478/1/Leon_Diaper_Bournemouth_UK)