The Holi (Sanskrit: होली) (Devanagari:फागु/फगुआ) Festival of Hindus

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Holi Celebrations

Holi (Sanskrit: होली) (Devanagari:फागु/फगुआ)

• This festival is celebrated on the full moon day of Falgun generally in the month of March

• Holi is also celebrated as the New Year day of Vikram era

• At the full moon night, the Holika is burnt with great fan and fare and the next day that is the new moon day people celebrate the new years day

• On this day sweets and other delicious items of food are prepared and shared by friends and relatives

• New clothes are given to the children and ladies

• Red colored water is thrown and red powder (Abir) is smeared on faces as mark of love and affection

• People sing folk songs on this occasion

• is a spring festival also known as the festival of colors, and sometimes festival of love

• It is an ancient Hindu religious festival which has become popular with non-Hindus in many parts of South Asia, as well as people of other communities.

• It is primarily observed in India, Nepal, and other regions of the world with significant populations of majority Hindus or people of Indian origin

Holika Bonfire

• The festival has, in recent times, spread in parts of Europe and North Americas as a spring celebration of love, frolic, and colors

• celebrations start with a Holika bonfire on the night before Holi where people gather, sing and dance

• The next morning is free for all carnival of colors,  where everyone plays, chases and colors each other with dry powder and colored water, with some carrying water guns and colored water-filled balloons for their water fight

• Anyone and everyone is fair game, friend or stranger, rich or poor, man or woman, children and elders

• The frolic and fight with colors occurs in the open streets, open parks, outside temples and buildings

• Groups carry drums and musical instruments, go from place to place, sing, and dance

• People move and visit family, friends, and foes, first play with colors on each other, laugh and chit chat, then share Holi delicacies, food, and drinks

• In the evening, after sobering up, people dress up, visit friends and family

• It is a national holiday

• Holi is celebrated at the approach of vernal equinox, on the Phalguna Purnima (Full Moon)
• The festival date varies every year, per the Hindu calendar, and typically comes in March, sometimes February in the Gregorian Calendar
• the festival signifies the victory of good over evil, the arrival of spring, end of winter, and for many a festive day to meet others, play and laugh, forget and forgive, and repair ruptured relationships

Selling Colors in Holi

History

• Holi is an ancient Hindu festival with its cultural rituals
• It is mentioned in the Puranas, Dasakumara Charita, and by the poet Kālidāsa during the 4th-century reign of Chandragupta II
• There is a symbolic legend to explain why Holi is celebrated
• The word "Holi" originates from "Holika", the evil sister of demon king Hiranyakashipu
• King Hiranyakashipu had earned a boon that made him virtually indestructible
• The special powers blinded him, he grew arrogant, felt he was God, and demanded that everyone worship only him
• Hiranyakashipu's own son, Prahlada, however, disagreed
• He was and remained devoted to Vishnu
• This infuriated Hiranyakashipu
• He subjected Prahlada to cruel punishments, none of which affected the boy or his resolve to do what he thought was right
• Finally, Holika - Prahlada's evil aunt - tricked him into sitting on a pyre with her
• Holika was wearing a cloak (shawl) that made her immune to injury from fire, while Prahlada was not
• As the fire roared, the cloak flew from Holika and encased Prahlada
• Holika burned, Prahlada survived
• Vishnu appeared and killed Hiranyakashipu
• The bonfire is a reminder of the symbolic victory of good over evil, of Prahlada over Hiranyakashipu, of fire that burned Holika
• The day after Holika bonfire is celebrated as Holi
• Holi festival has other cultural significance
• It is the festive day to end and rid oneself of past errors, end conflicts by meeting others, a day to forget and forgive

• People pay or forgive debts, as well as deal anew with those in their lives

• Holi also marks the start of spring and for many the start of new year

Celebrations

• Marketplaces get abuzz with activity as frenzied shoppers start making preparations for the festival

• Visitors to homes are first teased with colors, then served with Holi delicacies, desserts and drinks

• After playing with colors, and cleaning up, people bathe, put on clean clothes, visit friends and family

• Heaps of various hues of gulal and abeer can be seen on the roadside days before the festival
• Pichkaris in innovative and modern design to come up every year to lure the children who wish to collect them as Holi memorabilia and of course, to drench everybody in the town

• Womenfolk too start making early preparations for the Holi festival as they cook loads of pua, gujiya, mathri and papri for the family and also for the relatives

• At some places specially in the north women also make papads and potato chips at this time

• The celebration of Holi is also mentioned in the 7th-century Sanskrit drama, Ratnavali

• The festival of Holi caught the fascination of European traders and British colonial staff by the 17th century