Trinidad - Event

Holi, Holika Dahan, or the festival of colour, sees Trinidadian Hindus celebrating good harvests and the Earth's fertility, playing childish pranks and getting very messy.

Huge bonfires are made on the eve of the festival (one explanation being that they drive out Dhunda, a female demon, from participating villages), while the actual day is marked by loud processions, singing, dancing, traditional songs - and a whole lot more.

The celebrations pay tribute to Hindu god Krishna, and are associated with his love for Radha. The young Krishna would moan to his mother about why Radha was so fair and he was so dark. His mother advised him to apply colour on Radha's face and see how her complexion would change. The celebrations still explore this idea.

If you're a visitor to the Holi celebrations, it's probably a good idea to take some old clothes with you - no-one is exempt from the festivities. You'll find people running on the streets and smearing each other with brightly-coloured powders (gulal) and coloured water - an interesting development on the theme of smearing gulal on friends' foreheads.

While the aim of Holi is apparently to develop an increased appreciation of beauty and cultivate good taste, people get away with almost anything on this day - including squirting coloured water on passers-by...