This is how the Holi is played in the two villages:
(Nandgaon, Krishna's village, and Barsana, Radha's village)
Mythology says this is the village where Krishna stayed till his mid-teens with his foster father Nanda Baba and forster mother Yashoda. Nandgaon and the adjacent Barsana, the native place of Radha, is where Holi is played in all its multi-hued glory as villagers re-enact the romantic escapades of the two lovers through the Lathmaar (hitting with bamboos, playfully) Holi. The festival is celebrated over three days, almost a week ahead of the festival in the rest of the country.
On the first day, transvestites from Barsana - sakhis (Radha’s friends), according to mythology - come to Nandgaon to invite the men - Krishna and his friends - to come and play Holi. The next day, Nandgaon’s men visit Barsana where the women chase and hit them playfully with lathis (bamboos). The next day, however, the tables are turned when men from Barsana visit Nandgaon and the latter’s women wield the lathis.
Devki Nandan, a young boy in his early twenties who is a priest at Nandgaon’s temple, said that when the men enter Barsana, they tease women by singing passion-filled songs and name-calling. “It’s like a dewar (husband's younger brother) teasing a bhabi (wife of an elder brother),” Devki says. “That’s why the villagers of Nandgaon and Barsana do not inter-marry.”
The narrow lanes are clogged with people right up to the Radharani temple on the top of a hillock. Amidst this crowd, the elderly villagers sit facing each other, drenched in colour and singing 'horis' (ballads) about the love of Radha and Krishna.
(Hindustan Times, March 6, 2015)
That is what happens when an outsider tries to entice a village girl, welcome him with sticks. There are villages in India, where the playfulness is replaced by throwing stones and bows and arrows. But I think such traditions should be abandoned, where people really get hurt.
