Holi Festival of Colors the Streets of India

Holi Festival of Colors the Streets of India

Religion, bonfires and an abundance of colored chalk — India’s Holi Festival could just be one the world’s most beautiful celebrations. Faces were masked with color, and social rules were relaxed last weekend in India; it’s no surprise that numerous communities overseas are also jumping on the multi-colored bandwagon and wishing each other a ‘Happy Holi’ too. Every year, the Holi Festival brings a rainbow of chalk to the streets of India. The Holika bonfire is ignited the night before the Holi, bringing people gathered together for an evening of dance and song. The following day, the bonfire gives way for a free-for-all carnival of color. Participants play, chasing each other with colored water and powder. The festival’s intention is to bring together strangers, uniting the rich and poor, men and women, children and elders — people who might not mingle otherwise.

Holi is the most famous festival of colours. It is celebrated every year in the month of Falgun (March) by the people of Hindu religion. It is celebrated with great joy and enthusiasm as it brings feeling of love and closeness among people. Colourful colours are spread out by the people over each other. At this day we meet each other, handshake, hug and apply abeer on the forehead to each other. We sing religious songs (or Fagua geet) with musical instruments like Dholak, Kirtal, etc. At this special day we eat special things like gujhiya, sweets, chips, papad, halwa, pani puri, dahi bade, etc. A day before the colourful holi, Holika Dahan takes place. It is a public holiday when all the banks, schools, colleges, offices and other institutions are closed. We celebrate this festival very happily by spraying colourful colours to each other in the morning. Generally, people celebrate holi for the whole day and come to home in the night. Holi is the widely celebrating festival of the year just like Diwali by the Hindus. Every year it falls in the month of Falgun (or March) which indicates the beginning of the spring season too. There is a great history and significance of celebrating this holi festival every year. Long years ago, there was a Holika, a devil sister of devil Hiranyakashyap who tried to burn Prahlad (son of her brother) in the big fire by taking him in her lap. Prahlad was a true devotee of God who was saved from fire by the God however Holika was burnt and changed to ashes. From then, Hindu people celebrate the victory of goodness over the devil power every year as a festival of holi.

Holi festival celebration starts at the last day of Phalgun by the Holika Dahan in the evening and colour play in the next morning. Children wait for this festival with lots of courage and happiness and starts collecting colourful colours, balloons, bucket, pitchakri, etc to play holi. They also collect some sticks, straws and co-dung cakes in the mid of cross road and make a big heap for the ceremony of Holika Dahan. Holi is the great festival of colors, celebrated every year by the Hindu people in India. Holi festival falls every year in the spring season in the month of Falgun (or March). It is one of the happiest festivals of the Hindus like Diwali. It is celebrated every year on the first day of Chaitra month. The whole environment and nature looks very beautiful and colourful at the time of holi.

Holi is a most favourite festival of all as it brings lots of joy and happiness. It is celebrated every year by the people of Hindu religion as a very important festival. It falls in the start of spring season generally in the month of March (or Falgun).  Everyone wait for this festival with lots of courage and special preparations of how to celebrate it. A day before colourful holi, people burn a heap of woods and co-dung cakes in the night in the myth of burning Holika to remember that day. Some people follow the special ritual of burning the waste of sarson ubtan massage of each family member in the Holika in the myth that doing so would remove all the evil power from the house and the body and bring happiness and positive power to the home.  There is a great story of Prahlad behind celebrating the holi.  Once Prahlad (who was a great devotee of God) was tried to be killed by his own father as he denied to worship his own father in place of God. His aunt, Holika, sit in the fire by keeping him in her lap on the order of Prahlad’s father but he was saved by the God as he was a true devote.  And Holika burnt in the fire even after she was booned by the God to never get harmed by the fire. From that day, Hindu people start celebrating the festival of holi every year to remember the triumph of goodness over badness.

9 Things to Know About Holi

The colorful party makes up just one part of Holi. The night before on Holika Dahan, Hindus light dung and wood in a symbolic effigy to commemorate the demise of Holika. People throw the famed, colored powder on Rangwali Holi, the second day of the festival and most famous. People prepare much earlier by purchasing the powder and kids excitedly practice their aim. Certain groups focus more on the solemn, religious aspects: In the Braj region of India, for example, Holi celebrations stretch for 16 days. Holi gets its name from Holika, the demoness sister of evil King Hiranyakashyap in Hindu mythology. As the story goes, the villainous king tried to forbid his son Prahlad from worshiping one of the Hindu gods, Vishnu, but Prahlad persisted despite his father. So the king ordered Prahlad and Holika (who was immune to fire) to sit on a pyre, a wooden structure for burning a body as part of a funeral or execution. When the flames struck, Holika burnt to death in spite of her immunity to fire, and miraculously Prahlad prevailed because he called on the help of Lord Vishnu. So Holi celebrations serve as a reminder of the triumph of good over evil, reflecting the Hindu belief that faith and devotion leads to salvation that can be attained by everyone who believes. Legend holds that as a child, Krishna felt jealous of his beloved sister Radha’s fair skin, much lighter than his own blue face. When he complained to his mother Yashoda, she teasingly replied for Krishna to paint Radha’s face whatever color he chose, so he did. So the flying multihued pigments, called gulal, remind of the story of Krishna. Some people toast Holi with a bhang–a milky beverage mixed with a paste of the buds and leaves of cannabis grown high in the Himalayas. Consumed for 3,000 years, this weed milkshake connects through mythology to the powerful monk god Shiva–and sold in government-run bhang shops.

Holi expands well beyond the Indian continent. Hindus celebrate in Bangladesh and Pakistan, plus other countries with large diaspora populations like Suriname, South Africa, and Malaysia. The United Kingdom and the United states also hold parties, concerts, and events across the country, making it possible for many to join the festivities.

Although a Hindu festival, Holi is celebrated by Indians across the country and is a great equalizer. Children can douse elders with water, women splash men with color and the rules of caste and creed are briefly forgotten with everyone taking part. The evenings are spent visiting friends and family. A national holiday, it takes place on the last full moon day of the Hindu lunisolar calendar month, which is usually March. This year's national holiday falls on Friday, March 2. The festival takes place a day earlier in the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha. In some parts of northern Uttar Pradesh state, the festivities take place over a week.

However, this strategy was also became failed as little Prahlad was the devotee of the Lord Vishnu and he was saved by his God. Holika was died in the fire and Prahlad was saved. From that day, people of Hindu religion started celebrating the Holi festival every year. In the evening of a day before the colourful Holi, people make a heap of woods and co-dung cakes on the cross roads and do fire in the heap in the myth of burning Holika and celebrate Holika Dahan ceremony. Some people make round and round of the burning Holika and worship to get blessed with the prosperity and good health by burning all the sins and diseases in the fire. There is also a tradition in Hindu religion of burning wastes of the whole body massage with mustard seed paste in the fire in the myth of burning all the skin problems and get good health for the whole year.

There are many stories and legends behind celebrating the Holi in India for years. It is the festival of great importance and significance. According to the Hindu mythology, it is considered as Holi celebration was started a long ago from the ancient time when Holika was burned in the fire while trying to kill her own brother’s son in the fire. In the next morning of the Holika Dahan, people celebrate a colourful Holi by getting together at one place and on the roads. Colourful Holi preparations start a week before the main date of the Holi festival. People become highly enthusiastic especially children of the home who starts buying different colours a week before the date. Even they start playing colours with their friends, neighbours and relatives with pitchakri and small balloons. In the morning people start roaming to each other’s home by having abeer and colours to play. They apply abeer to the forehead of each other, hug each other and celebrate eating various delicious dishes like gujhiya, sweets, pani puri, dahi bade, chips and so many other yummy dishes at each other’s home all through the day.  It is considered as there was a demon king called Hiranyakashyap, father of little Prahlad. He had tried to kill his own son in the fire when Prahlad denied to worship his father as Prahlad was a great devotee of the Lord Vishnu. When Hiranyakashyap failed in many of his strategies to kill Prahlad, he ordered his own sister, Holika to sit in fire by having Prahlad in her lap as she was booned by the God for never getting harmed by the fire.