It’s fun and colours at Holi festival
Thousands of Hindus gathered at the SSD Temple on Lower Kabete Road to celebrate the Holi Mela festival.
Hundreds others also held similar celebrations in other temples and private residences across the city.
The celebrations saw overjoyed devotees throw colours and sprinkled coloured water on one another to signify their good wishes to friends, family and even strangers.
Drenched in water, Shila Pandit told NairobiNews: “It’s a really beautiful environment with all these children learning about what Holi means and being able to meet everyone on an auspicious day like this is always a blessing.”
Devotees also got to sample traditional Indian foods at the dozens of stalls erected at the temple. Others formed long queues to have henna applied to their palms or to buy traditional Indian clothing.
Popular Indian Dj Aman Behal belted out Bollywood music through large speakers within the temple.
The celebrations entail the lighting of a large bonfire into which devotees place a coconut and some popcorn kernels as well as dates considered an offering to the ‘Holi Mata’ or ‘Holika’ the goddess who is said to protect young children from evil.
Not even the light afternoon showers dampened spirits as devotees lined up to place their offerings into the bonfire.
Said Sushil Pradhan, who recently migrated from India to Nairobi with his family: “We thought that we would miss out the traditional celebrations once we moved here but seeing the Asian community and how active they are in keeping up with Indian traditions is inspiring and makes the move a lot easier, Holi celebrations here have been spectacular.”