HOOLY, a Hindu festival in honour of Krishna, which takes place in the month Phalgun, Feb ruary—March, at the commencement of the joyous spring. The amusements on this occasion consist in dancing, singing, and play. Their songs are called Kavir, or extempore stanzas, principally in allusion to the charms of Krishna and his amours with the Gopia, and are not marked by an excess of delicacy. One of the dances is the favourite Tipri dance, or Rasa mandala, in which 20, 30, or more form a ring, each having a short stick in the hand, with which the dancer strikes alternately those of the persons before and behind him, keeping time with it and his foot ; the circle moves round, keeps time to a drum and shepherd's pipe of three or four sweet and plaintive notes. In Major Moor's Hindu Pantheon is a beautiful plate on this subject, in which Krishna (with Radha) in the centre is described as the sun, and the circle of dancers as the heavenly bodies moving round him. In the hooly, the players throw a red powder, sometimes mixed with powdered talc to make it glitter, into the eyes, mouth, and nose, or over the persons of those who are objects of the sport, splashing them well at the same time with an orange-coloured water. The powder is sometimes thrown from a syringe, and sometimes put into small globules, which break as soon as they strike the object at which they are aimed. The Hindu women are expert iu throwing these. The hooly among the Hindus reminds one strongly of the Saturnalia of the Romans : people of humble condition take liberties with their superiors in a manner not admissible on other occasions. The
chief fun in public is throwing the coloured powders above alluded to on the clothes of persons passing in the streets,aud squirting about the tinted waters. Dignified personages avoid as much as they can appearing abroad while these jocular ities are passing, unless with the view of gaining popularity they condescend to partake in them ; in general they confine themselves to their houses, and amuse themselves with their families. In pictures, belonging to a series illustrating the domestic occupations of the Indians, the family diversions of the hooly appear like those more publicly exhibited,—scattering yellow and red powders, and squirting coloured water. Sending simpletons on idle errands contributes also to the delights of the hooly ; this is performed exactly similar to our ceremony of making April fools on the first of that month, and is common to all ranks of Hindus ; and Mahomedans, indeed, join in this, as well as in other items of hooly fun and humour. Another opportunity of merriment, similar to the May-day gambols of England, is afforded to the Hindus in a festival in honour of Bhawani, that always falls on or near that day.—Cole. Myth. Hind. p. 382 ; Moor's Hindu Pantheon. See Holi.