Holi is celebrated as a festival of colors in India and across the world. It is the festival of colors, emotions, happiness and It is celebrated as a festival of victory of good over evil. It also marks the beginning of spring. The purpose of the festival is to bridge the gap in the social circle and have a cordial relationship between the people in the locality. People share the joy with each other irrespective of class, creed, age, gender etc. Although it is primarily a Hindu religious festival, people all across religions celebrate with great joy and enthusiasm. The festival is celebrated in the month of Phalgun on Pournami day (full Moon), which is in the month of March or sometime in February as per the Gregorian calendar.

Holi Celebrations

Significantly, importance is given more on the sharing of love and togetherness than on religious ceremonies in celebrating Holi. People from all walks of life will come together, play and laugh, forget and forgive each other and celebrate with joy. The celebrations start on the eve of the Holi, with Holika Dahan, where the effigy of Holika, the evil sister of demon hiranyakashipu is burnt. People gather around the bonfire and dance, sing and laugh. The next morning after some religious ceremonies, the carnival of colours starts. People throw dry coloured powder or coloured water on each other. Young participants use water guns and water-filled balloons. The whole street and parks are filled with colour. There will be musical performances and people sing, dance and party the whole day. People forget all the differences within them. They visit friends and family and share food, drinks, sweets etc. In some places, some kind of intoxicating drink called Bhang is used.

Significance of Colors

The beauty of Hinduism is that every aspect of it has a deeper meaning. We need to be broad-minded in understanding ancient culture. The festival is not only about fun and joy, it also has a medicinal significance that is used in colour therapy. Each colour has its own significance and represents its own nature. Colours will affect the mind and emotions. Our body is also made up of several colours and there can be an imbalance of colours in the body more so at the time of seasonal changes. The festival is celebrated at the time of the end of winter and the start of summer. The body is more prone to get the disease at this time. In ancient times, colours were prepared from flowers and other natural ingredients like neem, turmeric, ginger, cumin etc. The flowers will be dried in the Sun and then a fine powder is made. Likewise, other natural herbs are used. And it is mixed in water to make a pigment. These sattvik fragrances provide nourishment to the body and the mind. The colour which is deficient in the body will be supplemented in this manner. However, today we use colours made of chemicals that will have a long-lasting impact on our body.

[Also Read: How to prepare natural colours]

The legends behind Holi Festival

The name Holi is derived from ‘Holika’, who is a sister of demon king Hiranyakashipu. He was the king of Multan and was very arrogant towards people. He had obtained a boon that made him immensely powerful and undefeated. He challenged the gods and conquered the world. He thought himself to be a God and ordered everyone in the kingdom to worship him. However, his own son Prahlada, who was a small boy at that time, did not obey the order and worshipped Lord Vishnu. Prahlada was an ardent devotee of Vishnu. The father got enraged and he ordered to punish Prahlada. He subjected Prahlada to severe punishments but it could not deter the determination of Prahlada. Every time when he was going through the punishment, he was chanting Vishnu’s name and would come out unhurt. Finally, after failing with all the ways, Hiranyakashipu asked his sister Holika to enter the blazing fire along with Prahlada. She was wearing a cloak that made her immune from fire injuries. As the fire roared, to the amazement of everyone, the cloak flew and encircled Prahlada. Thus Prahlada survived and Holika got burnt. And Lord Vishnu appeared and killed HIranyakashipu. The next day when the fire cooled down, people applied ash on their forehead and celebrated with joy.

As per the other legend, when Sati, the consort of Lord Shiva, got immolated in fire because her father Daksha disrespected herself and Shiva. By hearing this, Lord Shiva renounced worldly duties and went into deep meditation. Due to the absence of Shiva, the order of the world got crumbled. Meanwhile, Sati got incarnated as Goddess Parvati. She along with other gods went to Lord Kamadev, the god of love and passion, to bring him back to the normal state. Kaamadev is the son of Krishna and Rukmini and his wife is Rati. Kaamadev agreed to help even though he knew the consequences of doing so. As planned, Kaama shot the arrow towards Shiva, who was in meditation. This made Shiva very disturbed and he opened his third eye (Phaala Netra) and reduced Kaama into ashes. But he was successful in bringing Shiva out of meditative trance. Later Rati and other Gods explained the situation and pleaded with Shiva to restore Kaama into life. Shiva accepted it and restored him from the ashes in the form of Pradyumna. And finally, Shiva married Parvati and restored the order of the world. Because of the sacrifice of Kaamadev, people started worshipping Kaamadev and celebrated on this day.