The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.289

v2.c17.s1.289

'The manner in which it was celebrated in Germany at one time is thus described by Joannes Boemus Aubanus : 'The whole of Germany eats and drinks and gives itself up to jokes and sports, as if there was not another day to live, and people wear disguises and masks or stain their faces and vestures with red and black paint, or run about naked like the Luperci, from whom, I think, this annual exhibition of insanity has descended to us'⁶⁷. If we omit the nudity of which Holi players are never guilty and change the word Germany into India the description would exactly fit in for Holi. Naogerogus, in his description of the Carnival, is even more precise and I cannot resist the temptation to quote the following verses from his writings by way of illustration. No one who has seen the Holi celebrated in India can mistake the life-like exactitude of the picture given.