Holi Powder

Have you heard about Holi Powder?? This stuff is so incredibly awesome that I just have to tell everyone about it.

For starters, here is the description Wikipedia gives about Holi:
Holi (Hindi: होली) is a religious spring festival celebrated by Hindus. It is primarily observed in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, ^[1] and countries with large Indic diaspora populations following Hinduism, such as Suriname, Malaysia, Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad, United Kingdom, United States, Mauritius, and Fiji. It is also known as Phagwah and Festival of Colours, or as Doḷajāta (Oriya: ଦୋଳଯାତ) in Orissa and Dol Jatra (Bengali: দোলযাত্রা) or Basantotsav ("spring festival") (Bengali: বসন্তোৎসব) in West Bengal. The most celebrated Holi is in the Braj region, in locations connected to the Lord Krishna: Mathura, Vrindavan, Nandagaon, and Barsana, which become tourist destinations during the season of Holi.^[2] Large parts of South India, however, do not celebrate Holi with the same fervour.

 Every year, thousands of Hindus participate in the festival Holi. The festival has many purposes. First and foremost, it celebrates the beginning of the new season, spring. Originally, it was a festival that commemorated good harvests and the fertile land. Hindus believe it is a time of enjoying spring's abundant colors and saying farewell to winter. It also has a religious purpose, commemorating events present in Hindu mythology. Although it is the least religious holiday, it is probably one of the most exhilarating ones in existence. During this event, participants hold a bonfire, throw colored powder at each other, and celebrate wildly.
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I saw a blog (you can see it here) about a birthday party that used Holi Powder in a baseball game. I thought this was such a cool concept and showed it to my daughter. Right away she said she needed to do something like that for her birthday party. She is all of 5 years old but I had to agree with her! What a fun thing to do with all her little friends, such a great memory to share with them.

So, I started to search online to see where I might be able to find some Holi Powder. At first, I couldn't find much of anything and then finally I found a supplier through Amazon (you can click the word Amazon to find the products page.)

I ordered a box of the Festival Colors and last night, the kids and I tried a couple of the colors out. We needed to test them to see how badly they stained skin or hair or clothing BEFORE I let a bunch of 6 year olds let loose with them.

Here is our box of Festival Colours. If you order some just be prepared for the smell. They are scented and my best comparison would be to really fragrant roses. If you have allergies, this could be an issue.

I split a purple and green between the kids so they each had two baggies. I also gave them white t-shirts and made sure the shorts they had on were grubby in case the powder stained.

Then I let them loose.

The end result: We had some extremely messy kids (and mom) but we had a lot of fun. Surprisingly the powder washed off with warm water and soap. It also brushed right off of our clothing. Anything that didn't brush off, rinsed off in warm water.  We did, however, have to wash the kids hair because it the powder wanted to stay put.

We didn't rinse the shirts off because we thought they looked pretty cool. I read somewhere that you can set the colors on the shirt by spraying it with some vinegar and then ironing it to keep it. I haven't tried this yet but I will soon.

So, what did we learn? We are definitely doing this for Kaylen's birthday party. After the kids go crazy with our "rainbow battle," we will let them run around in the sprinkler to rinse off a bit and then have them get into the pool. I am sure it will be a great time had by all (inclduing the parents!)