Holi Let's Celebrate

# Can't wait to celebrate

# It's great to celebrate

# Can't wait to celebrate

# It's great to celebrate! #

Oh, hello! Thomas Ticker here.

I'm in an arty mood, so thought I'd get my paints out.

Except, I can't think what to paint!

All these brilliant colours and I can't think what to do!

Never mind, there's the Hindu Festival of Colours to show you.

It's called Holi.

And Sumedh is getting ready to celebrate it.

I can't wait!

Hi, I'm Sumedh. I'm getting ready to celebrate a cultural Hindu festival,

Holi!

Holi is a wonderful festival, because spring has arrived!

Come on, we need to get ready!

We have a shrine in our house.

We worship here every single day.

Later we're going to a humungous temple where Hindus worship.

This is the Lord Krishna.

He likes playing tricks on people, a bit like me!

-Got you!

-Oh!

Mum's making a kind of paint, called tika.

It's a traditional mark we give people

when they come to our home on special occasions.

Mum puts it on boys, with a stick, and girls, with her finger.

Let's see. Hmmm, yeah, that looks nice.

I like it.

That must be Purvaja.

Hello, Purvaja

-Hello Sumedh. Holi Badhai Ho.

-Holi Badhai Ho.

'That means, "Let this day of Holi bring you prosperity and good luck"

'in the Hindi language.'

Me and Purvaja are going to be helping my mum make a tasty treat

called Besan Ladoo.

To make it, what you will need is flour,

ghee, which is like butter, sugar, cardamom - that's a spice -

raisins, and cashew nuts.

Now she is frying raisins with the cashew nuts and ghee,

making me too hungry!

It smells yummy!

She's putting the sugar in now.

Just a sprinkle.

The cardamom is going in - it makes the Besan Ladoo taste nice.

I can't wait till it's finished!

Now she is putting more ghee in. It sticks it all together.

You have to mix the mixture really hard.

We are going to shape them into ladoos.

That's a kind of ball shape.

We offer the Besan Ladoo to the gods before we can taste them ourselves.

Mmm! This is really tasty.

I don't usually wear old clothes to temple but today I will need some,

because later there is going to be a colourful messy surprise.

These are a bit too new.

I'm not having these, otherwise they will get spoiled.

These pants and this t-shirt are too dark.

Let's see. These are perfect!

The temple is really beautiful.

Everyone is welcome, especially on Holi.

We're helping to prepare for the celebrations later.

Do you remember that I told you this festival is colourful?

Well, later on there will be lots of colour.

That's why we're putting the coloured paint into bags.

It's going to be so much fun!

I've got a very messy, colourful surprise planned for my dad!

Can you guess what it is? Don't tell anyone! See you at the celebration!

I'm really excited!

I've been inspired by all that painting.

I found some face-paints at the bottom of a drawer.

Are you ready?

Ta-dah!

Rrrraaaargh!

What do you think, Sprocket?

Ha-ha! I think I got a bit carried away!

Traditionally, Holi marks the beginning of spring.

And, hey, there are some brilliant dances that celebrate Holi,

would you like to see one?

No? You don't want to see me dance, no!

I've got some friend who are much better than I am!

HINDI MUSIC PLAYS

Phew! I'm exhausted just watching that!

Sumedh is going to have the Holi celebration now.

I think it's going to get messy!

Ooh! Ha-ha! It just got messy in here! I'll have to clear that up!

Well, never mind!

We're about to go into the temple.

But before we go in, we've got to take our shoes off.

It's our way of keeping the temple special. And clean, I suppose!

At home, we worship at our shrine, but here at the temple

we get together with friends and relatives to worship.

Everyone sits on the floor.

The temple is very beautiful and colourful.

Look at our statues of the gods,

and a shrine just like we have at home.

There are carvings of elephants too.

Behind the curtain is the Balaji god.

We leave presents for the gods.

Those sticks are called incense sticks.

They give the temple a lovely smell.

Our temple is like one you would find in the south of India.

Everyone is welcome here, especially today.

It's time for us to eat now.

The temple gives everyone a wonderful meal in the marquee.

Loads of people come every single day.

But if there's functions, there's like, one thousand, one million,

something like that, for an estimate!

Other religions can come to the temple if they want,

it doesn't really matter to us.

It makes my stomach rumble when I smell this, it's like... Oh, man!

You can't describe it! Mmm!

Nice, hot food is good for you.

There's my dad over there.

Remember, don't tell anyone we've got a colourful,

messy surprise for him in mind!

That reminds me - we better get changed into our old clothes.

We've got our old clothes on now, time for the fun to begin. Yeah!

The bags of paint we have been busy preparing will be handed out now.

Can we start now?

Ah-ha! The colourful, messy surprise was throwing paint!

It's a trick to play on people, just like Lord Krishna did.

-We love throwing the paint.

-Happy Holi!

-It's really fun.

Dad hasn't got any paint on him yet, I think it's time to now!

This is the moment when I get to play the trick on Dad. Yeah!

Look how much paint is on him! Nearly as much as me!

After the paint throwing we get cleaned up

and ready for the evening celebrations.

At Holi, a bonfire is lit.

We have to stay back, to keep safe.

The bonfire is colourful, like the paints we were throwing.

It's really bright.

Thanks for coming to our Holi celebration.

It's great to celebrate. Bye!

Wow! All that paint throwing was fantastic!

Even the adults joined in!

Oh, but remember, you're never allowed to throw paint around.

Not unless you're at a Holi festival,

and lots of grown-ups say you can.

Well, uh...we'll put that back later, shall we?

Right! Time for a colourful little party of my own, I think!

# Can't wait to celebrate It's great to celebrate

# Can't wait to celebrate It's great to celebrate

# Can't wait to celebrate It's great to celebrate

# Can't wait to celebrate It's great to celebrate

# We're so excited cos it's going to be

# A party time for all our friends and family

# We're getting ready We'll have so much fun

# So come and join in, everyone

# Cos it's time for us to celebrate

# It's time for us to celebrate It's great to celebrate

# Today is such a special day It's great to celebrate

# It's time for you and me to celebrate

# So jump to your feet and dance with us

# Clap your hands and cheer

# Cos it's time for us to celebrate

# It's good to celebrate Time for us to celebrate

# Cos today is such a special day

# It's time for you and me to celebrate

# Can't wait to celebrate It's great to celebrate

# It's great to celebrate! #