All of us love to celebrate festivals but we must make sure that we are celebrating them in an environment friendly manner. Same applies to the Holi celebration. Read on to find out how you can play an eco-friendly Holi with your children.Holi is a wonderful festival celebrated with lots of colours and enjoyment. It is celebrated by many people all over the world with happy-go-lucky attitude. Unfortunately, the essence of this festival is not the same in the recent days owing to pitiless commercialization and harmful Holi products. Thus, the Holi celebration nowadays is not completely safe and beautiful, especially for children.
In fact, this is said to be a major source of ecological degradation. There are ways to play eco-friendly Holi and every individual who is interested in this celebration must follow these ways.
Let us take a look at some ways to play
eco-friendly Holi with children.
Prevent Usage of Water
Most of the Indian cities are facing water scarcity problem these days and this is well known all over the world. Holi festival is celebrated by splashing colourful water which in turn results in wastage of water. Every child must know the importance of water and how to use it effectively.
Out of gusto and fun, buckets and buckets of water are being used for celebration and children also throw water balloons at each other. It is very clear from this that water that can be used for one whole week gets wasted in very few hours in the name of Holi celebration. This may result lack of water supply in various zones. Thus, educate your children to avoid wasting water just for one day enjoyment.
Stay Away from Chemical-Based Colours
Many years back, the colours used for Holi celebration were prepared genuinely from different flowers and leaves of trees. The same kind of extraction is not followed these days and due to the advents of various dry chemical colours, people are not interested in spending money for extracting the colours from flowers.
Utilization of aluminium and chemical paints are high during the
Holi festival. It is very well proved that these chemicals are dangerous for skin and can cause pollution. Parents must make their children aware of all these negative effects and prevent them from using the chemical mixed powders which could lead to skin infections.
Create You Own Holi Colours
An interesting factor about Holi is children can make their own Holi colours at home with the available stuffs. There are some simple recipes to prepare
natural colours instead of handling the unnecessary chemicals.
For yellow colour, mix turmeric powder with chickpea flour or boil marigold flowers in water. Peel the pomegranate and soak the peeled content in water overnight to get yellow liquid colour. Make use of beetroot to prepare deep pink water. Dry the Mehndi leaves powder them and mix with water to get orange-red tint. Use rose petals for red shade and jacaranda flowers for blue.
Evade Balloons and Plastic Bags
Children show their willingness in throwing colourful water filled balloons and plastic bags during the Holi celebration. But for an
eco-friendly Holi with children, it is best recommended to avoid balloons and plastic bags. This kind of an activity will harm the external organs and create environmental pollution. Train the children to share this information with friends and neighbours.
Precautions for Safe Holi
During this festival, wear dark coloured and old clothes for easy cleaning once the celebration is over and also for less consumption of water for washing. Coconut oil is a very good defensive agent for hair and thus prevents penetration of colours deep inside the hair. Advise your children to apply coconut oil on hair, or make them to wear a cap. Girls can apply dark shaded nail polish, which prevents nails from getting stained.
Apart from the points mentioned above, warn your children not to use eggs, varnish or mud. Pouring the colours on plants and animals is not a good habit on that special day. Parents must be around the children when playing Holi and monitor their activities to prevent unnecessary harms that can be caused during the celebration to them as well as to the environment.
How to encourage children to play eco-friendly Holi? What are the ways to make natural colours for Holi? What are the harmful effects of chemical-based colours used during Holi celebration? Discuss here. 
