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If you land in India anytime in late February or March, it's wise to check the dates of the annual Holi festival. For a few days in spring, people crowd the streets and splash brilliantly colored dye on anyone walking by. It's hard to avoid the fun. It's also hard to avoid the paint. Holi represents the arrival of spring and the triumph of good over evil. It is also said to represent a game the Hindu god Lord Krishna played with his female companion Radha and the gopis, or milkmaids. The story represents the fun and flirtatiousness of the gods. The story also touches on the passing of the seasons and the deceptive nature of the material world. Traditionally the colors used in Holi came from flowers and herbs, which in the hot climate of India tend to produce bright natural dye. But today they're usually made artificially. India is one of the most colorful places in the world, but these colors are not just pretty. In India they also have meaning. Vishnu has blue skin In Hinduism, there are three main deities: Brahma the creator, Shiva the destroyer, and Vishnu the preserver. Vishnu spends eternity sleeping. But when called upon in a crisis, he wakes up and saves the world. One name for Vishnu is the blue-necked one. There is a story that he drank a pot of poison to save creation, thus turning his neck blue. This color is a reminder that evil exists but can be contained through courage and by taking the right actions. Blue is also historically linked with India because of its indigo dye. The dye comes from a bush with small green leaves that are dried and fermented. This dye is typical of India and has been traded with ancient civilizations, like the Romans in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Green represents nature and happiness while blue is associated with the gods, green is the color of nature and happiness. It's the color of another manifestation of Vishnu, Prince Rama, who spent most of his life in exile in the forest. In parts of central India, married women often wear green bangles or bracelets, and a green drape called a sari in Rama's honor. A widow never wears green. There is no natural green dye in India. Dyers would often double dip their cotton and silks in indigo and in turmeric or pomegranate peel, which made vivid yellow dyes. Lord Vishnu is said to have woven the rays of the sun into a yellow garment for himself. He and Krishna are almost always shown dressed in yellow and, in paintings of these deities, artists in India sometimes used one of the stranger pigments in history: Indian yellow. Indian Yellow was made in a suburb 300 miles north of what is present-day Kolkata by feeding cows mango leaves and then encouraging them to urinate into a bucket. However, the practice was cruel; the restricted diet left the cows thin and malnourished. In the early 1900s, this practice was ended, partly because of tougher rules about animal cruelty and partly because new, more stable paints were available, and there just wasn't the demand. Yellow is also the color of the third caste of Vaisyas, or merchants. Indian society is structured by the varna, or caste system. Each person is born into a certain caste, which determines their place in society. Traditionally, this ranking is a spiritual one, but it has always meant wealth and power for the higher castes. Although India today is more democratic, many people still follow the caste system in practice. Brides wear red at weddings Finally, there is red. In 1829, a deserter from the Army of the British East India Company traveling in disguise as an American from Kentucky became the first foreigner to record what he saw in the ruins of Mohenjo Daro, in what was then northern India. The deserter, James Lewis (traveling under the alias Charles Masson), was later to become one of Britain's most dedicated archaeologists. Today brides and married women wear red because it is the color of weddings, life, festivals, and all-around auspiciousness. When a married woman dies, her body is covered with a red cloth. A woman who becomes a widow never wears red again and at her death is covered in white, the color of purity. Tilak is a sacred mark many people in India mark a red dot, called a tilak, on their forehead. The red color is called kumkum and is made from turmeric powder. Turmeric powder is bright yellow except when mixed with lime, which miraculously turns it to scarlet. The tilak is always present in representations of deities and is a sacred mark of protection. On the surface, colors in India provide pleasure as well as useful signals of tradition and ritual. Yet, if we pay attention, colors in India also remind us of something easy to forget: our special relationship with light, as a source of joy, life, and spiritual experience.

1. After reading the article "The
meaning behind the many colors of
India's Holi festival," analyze the
traditional meaning of color in
Indian culture and how color is still
important in modern India today.
Use evidence from the passage to
support your response. (Write 3
paragraphs)

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1. After reading the article "The meaning behind the many colors of India's Holi festival," analyze the traditional meaning of color in Indian culture and how color is still important in modern India today. Use evidence from the passage to support your response. (Write 3 paragraphs)