Lath Mar Holi

[Manfred M]

One of the Holi events is Lath Mar, which nicely said women from one village beating the men from the other village with laths, which is the local name for a heavy wooden staff. The historical roots of this ceremony is that the men from one of the villages (Barsana and Nandgaon) would head to the other village to tease the local girl goat herders (something that the Hindu god Vishnu was said to have done). These women are strong farm girls and hit really hard.


1. Turban wrapping - the men wear padding underneath their turbans in case the women miss the protective leather shield.





2. More turban tying/





3. The men are marching down the street, having been up to the temple and gotten well soaked with red dye/





4. And here come the ladies, faces covered, carrying their laths as the march down the street.





5. Here the women are taking turns hitting the leather shield held above the man's head.





6. There's nothing like a roof top view to show the scene below.

[Rainforest]

So fun to see it all. #1 and #2 are especially wonderful. Keep them coming!

[bje07]

Nice journalism colorful series.

[Werner]

Nice series, well executed.

[selig1656]

Good journalism , pics three and four seem off on the colors. May be too much saturation , or need to adjust tones and hue .

[Manfred M]

Good journalism , pics three and four seem off on the colors. May be too much saturation , or need to adjust tones and hue .

No -those are the true colours - a lot of brilliant and highly saturated powders and liquid dyes were in use, especially the red and yellows. The bottom of my feet are still quite red (no shoes allowed in temples), it will be several more days of washing before that disappears. I did not touch the saturation or vibrance at all in PP.