While the people of the city are doing their bit to protect traditions, the mountainous areas of the State are fast loosing the traditional way of celebrating Holi. Recalling the good old days in villages, a Doon resident and a retired government officer RC Singh Rawat said the Holi celebrations in the Garhwal hills used to start with Basant Panchami.
He said groups of villagers celebrating Holi were called Holyars and added these Holyars made groups and sang the Holi songs. Rawat said songs were based on spring season, Ramayan, Krishna leela and some local legend or Devta. The famous folk singer Pritam Baratwan too rued the way Holi is being celebrated in Garhwal area now.
He said that earlier the youths used to make colours from local flowers of Buransh, Kingora and Tessu and added the tradition of putting Kumkum and Haldi (turmeric) coloured rice on the foreheads during Holi is also forgotten. The tradition of FYUlI (celebrating Holi with flowers) too is waning in the rural areas. While people in the city are realising that chemical colours are bad for skin and health and are using natural colours, the shops in the rural areas are flooded with chemical-based colours and the rural hill folks seem to have lost the knowledge of making colours from flowers and beautiful flower Holi.