Feature: Indian Holi color festival brings joy, hope to Egyptians

Amid gaiety and cheerful music, hundreds of Egyptians and foreigners celebrated on Friday the annual Indian Holi color festival that was sponsored by the Indian Embassy in Cairo.

The playing field of Cairo Sporting Club was decorated by vibrant colors of the rainbow when friends and families splashed brightly colored powders on each other, celebrating the Egyptian version of the Indian Festival of Colors.

"I came with my friends to enjoy the festival of colors. I'm a fan of the Indian culture and this event is really joyful," said Noha Hassan, a college student from Cairo, as brilliant colors covered her face and clothes.

Hassan, who was dressed in an orange and brown traditional Sari garment, said colors can change the mood of people as the bright ones fill the atmosphere with positive energies.

"Colors symbolize nature ... our life and the conditions in Egypt have been a bit gloomy recently, such events can give us hope and stamina," Hassan added as they reacted to the beats of the Indian music played during the event.

The Holi Festival of Colors is the spring Hindu festival that takes place on the streets of India and other countries with Hindu population.

In recent years the festival has spread to Europe, North America and the Middle East as a spring celebration of love, frolic and colors.

Most of the attendees here were young Egyptians with quite a good number of foreigners, mainly Indians.

"The event is very outstanding and it is really nice... I love the smiles on the faces of the people who came to celebrate the festival with all these colors," said Syed, an Indian businessman who lives in Cairo.

He hoped that more such events would be held in Egypt and help promote tourism which has been suffering in recent years due to the unstable political and security conditions in the Middle Eastern country.

"Such events should be used as messages to tourists abroad that Egypt is safe and lively," he said.

Although it is not the first Indian color festival in Egypt, but this one is the largest.

Organizers believe that such events are very well met by Egyptians who really are in bad need for such pleasant activities to help them survive the current hardships facing the country.

May Khafagi, the event organizer who is a big fan of India and its culture, said she is the one who raised the idea of holding such events in Egypt.

"I have attended many color festivals in India, and then I asked myself why do not bring this to Egypt? So I did and it really works well," she said with colored powders splashed overhead.

Khafagi said she is keen to promote Indian culture in Egypt through holding more Indian activities, "because the Indian culture has much to offer to Egyptians."

Splashing colors was not the only thing attendees could enjoy. Local music bands performed on the stage surrounded by the ecstatic young people, families and children with eye-catching colors.

"It is a new thing that I want to try and it is a great fun," 10-year-old Elinore Alphonse said as she tossed powder on her mother. Endit