In India, where we celebrate unity in diversity, you will never experience a more diverse occasion than the festival of Holi. With blooming happiness and lots of colors, Holi marks the beginning of spring and a prosperous future.
Holi, a traditional Hindu festival in India, takes place in two days all over India. It celebrates fertility, color and love, and the triumph of good over evil. Holi is one of the major festivals of India and is the most interesting of all. It is best known for people smearing colors on each other, leaving colorful marks on their dresses, and a sense of joy in their hearts.
When is it celebrated?
Celebrated throughout the country, the festival of Holi is a very entertaining, fun, and happy experience. The timing of Holi is according to the moon, which means that the dates of each celebration vary year on year. As per history, Holi celebrates the beginning of the spring, with fertile land and abundant production. The smearing of color on each other symbolizes the celebration of the coming of spring and bidding farewell to the cold winter. Bonfires are lit in the streets to repel evil spirits and to create positive energy. People prepare snacks to share with guests and neighbors in their houses. It mainly celebrates two events over two days, Holika Dahan and Rangwali Holi.
Holika Dahan takes place before Rangwali Holi. At night, Wood and dung-cakes are burned symbolically to signify good defeating evil. It symbolizes the myth of God Vishnu burning the devil Holika to death according to Hindu Vedic scriptures. The next morning, people take part in Rangwali Holi, where people chase each other around in the streets, throwing colored powders (known as gulal) at each other. Each color symbolizes a particular sentiment.
History
According to Hindu mythology, Holi is very secular. It draws on various stories. The most famous one of them is the burning of the devil Holika (Holika Dahan). It also draws on the myth of Radha and Krishna. According to legend, Krishna loved Radha, but he felt self-conscious about how different their skin colors were. So, he went and playfully painted her face blue, so it was the same color as his. Lovers and married couples often celebrate Holi in this tradition by coloring each other's faces the same color during the celebrations.
How is it celebrated?
In holi, the part of Rangwala Holi is the most awaited, celebrated, and is a quite ruckus event. As the morning of Holi dawns, people gather together wearing white clothes and smears colored powder over each other. Over the years, the level of celebration has progressed to including fizzing color mixes, colored water balloon fights. The new and most recent color additions being black and silver, which resist fading even after bathing. And people even throw eggs and raw tomatoes. Some households prepare Bhang ki Thandai, a milk-based drink prepared by mixing almonds and spices with a small amount of marijuana to add to the happy spirit of celebration.
Holi is a North Indian festival. However, over time, it has spread to include many regions making it the celebration of India.
A few days before the festival, families stock up their shelves with color and prepare festive decorations, food, and refreshments. People visit their households and gather as a family, and young men and women dress in traditional attire and visit neighbors and friends. Holi is celebrated wholeheartedly by everyone, irrespective of gender Or age. The whole atmosphere will be filled with colors, laughs, and excitement.
The most exciting and important part of Holi is of course the colors. Although the smearing of color is so much fun, the ritual of doing so has its meaning. The colors are commonly known as gulal, Historically, the gulal was made of turmeric, paste, and flower extracts, but today synthetic versions are used. Each Holi color signifies a unique meaning and emotion that signifies the sentiment of community, equality, and oneness. Red symbolizes Purity, orange means endurance, purple stands for magic, blue shows calmness, green symbolizes vitality, pink is love, and yellow, happiness.
Holy may be a traditional religious celebration, but more than that, it is also considered as a time for people to get together and enjoy themselves. It is now a universal celebration where people enjoy themselves with friends, families, and communities, without any concern for caste or ethnicity. It is a festival that fills colors in the air as well as in the hearts and minds of people all over the world.
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