Holi was celebrated with fervour across Uttarakhand on Wednesday except a dozen villages in the Kumaon region which stayed away from colours in order not to invite the “wrath” of local deities.
Twelve villages of the Talla Johar area in Munsiyari sub division of Pithoragarh district never celebrate the festival of colours as the local deities do not seem to like it. The villages are Harkat, Matena, Papri, Paikuti, Barnia, Ring, Chulkot, Hokra, Manik, Gola, Jarthi and Khoyam, said Pooran Pandey, a social worker in Munsiyari.
According to villagers, their ancestors used to celebrate Holi around 100 years ago like the rest of the Kumaon region, but whenever the villagers came out to play with colours, something indicating divine disapproval of the celebrations happened.
Once while villagers were playing Holi, two snakes began to fight in the temple campus of local deity Bharati Sain. Even in the following years something or the other was witnessed in temples of local deities which set people thinking, according to villagers.
The villagers went to people on whom gods descend from time to time to ask them how they interpreted the incidents and they said the deities did not like the colours and were reacting like that to show their disapproval, an elderly resident of Harkot village, Khushal Singh Harkotia, said.
Villagers living outside the villages celebrate the festival when they are at their places of work or go to visit a relative elsewhere but when they are back in their own villages they do not even put a tika on their foreheads, Singh said.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)