Hello friends,
as we have celebrated Holi, we again will celebrate Holi in new enthusiasm.
Many Holi new song have been written by our Holi lovers to enjoy. We are or all
Holi lovers are celebrating Holi in different manners as per their regional
rituals. The Holi Utsav is an interesting festival in India as well as in
abroad in some countries. We are sharing some important topics about Holi
festivals for you. Here you will find many topics to read and watch.
Holi| Happy Holi| Holi Festival| Holi Wishes
Holi Information| Holi Party
Holi hai slogan is uttered by all Holi lovers. Holi Holi festival or a color festival or a lover festival is unite ourselves
with each other in a new strong tie. Many Holi movie were released for public view on various topics. We are
collecting data of Holi Holi nach and advising public for Holi near me to participate there.
Happy Holi Wishes
The
Holi, the festival of colors marks the commencement of spring season in India
after the winter season. It is celebrated with utmost joy throughout the
country. Similar to many other festivals in India, this festival also
symbolizes the victory of good over evil in India. People of all age groups
with their faces and clothes smeared with different colors of 'Gulal' (dried
color) celebrate the festival with great enthusiasm and fervor. The festival is
generally celebrated on Phalgun Purnima (February - March) and people greet
each other by rubbing colors on each other's body or face by saying 'Bura
Na Maano Holi Hai'-Holi bhai Holi Hai.
Holi
Greetings
The
Holi is a popular ancient Hindu festival, originating from the Indian
subcontinent. Holi is celebrated predominantly in India, but has also spread to
other areas of Asia and parts of the Western world through the diaspora from
the Indian subcontinent. Holi is popularly known as the Indian "festival
of spring", the "festival of colors", or the "festival of
love". This festival signifies the arrival of spring, the end of winter,
the blossoming of love and for many a festive day to meet others, play and
laugh, forget and forgive and repair broken relationships.
The
Holi festival also celebrates the beginning of a good spring harvest season.
Holi lasts for a night and a day starting on the evening of the Purnima (Full
Moon day) falling in the Vikram Samvat Calendar in the Hindu calendar month of
Phalguna, which falls around middle of March in the Gregorian calendar. The
first evening is known as Holika Dahan (burning of demon holika) or Chhoti Holi
and the following day as Holi, Rangwali Holi, Dhuleti, Dhulandi, or Phagwah are
called.
Holi Colours
Happy
Holi is an ancient Hindu religious festival which has become popular with
non-Hindus as well in many parts of South Asia, as well as people of other
communities outside Asia. In addition to India and Nepal, the festival is
celebrated by Indian subcontinent diaspora in countries such as Jamaica,
Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, Malaysia, the United
Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Mauritius and Fiji too. In recent years the
festival has spread to parts of Europe and North America as a spring
celebration of love, frolic, and pleasant colours.
How Holi is celebrated?
Holi
Celebration– Painting the Streets with Vibrant
Colors: Entire India gets immersed in the
celebratory fever, just a few weeks or days before the festival Holi. The
markets wear a vibrant look with various shops selling colors and delicious
sweets like the gujiyas, rasgulla, malpua, pichkaari and so on. As for the
drinks, one cannot miss the Bhang (a kind of drink prepared from the cannabis
plant) or Thandai (Cold drink). People in large numbers play Holi in groups
dancing to the foot tapping numbers shouting 'Holi Hai-Rang Birangee Holi Hai'.
No one is spared on this occasion and the people are smeared color powders
(Gulal) and spraying water with pichkaris (water guns) and water balloons on
each other.
The
Holi celebrations start on the night before Holi with a Holika Dahan where
people gather, perform religious rituals in front of the bonfire and pray that
their internal evil be destroyed the way Holika the sister of the demon king
Hiranyakashipu who was killed in the fire. The next morning is celebrated as
Rangwali Holi - a free-for-all festival of colors, where people smear each
other with colors and drench each other with love. Water guns and water-filled
balloons are also used to play and colour each other to throw. Anyone and
everyone are fair game, friend or stranger, rich or poor, man or woman,
children and elders.
Holi Venues
The
frolic and fight with colors occurs in the open streets, open parks, outside
temples and buildings. Groups carry drums and other musical instruments, go
from one place to other place, sing and dancing. People visit family, friends
and foes to throw colored powders on each other; laugh and gossip and then
share Holi delicacies, food and drinks. Some customary drinks include bhang
(made from cannabis), which is intoxicating. In the evening, after sobering up,
people dress up and visit friends and family houses.
About Holi
History and Rituals behind the Celebration of Holi Festival
This
festival of Holi actually begins a day before Dhulandi (day of playing colors)
when people light a bonfire and indulge in singing and dancing around the fire.
There are plenty of legends associated with the festival, but the popular one
is ‘Holika Dahan’ - a mythological character. Prahlada, son of demon king
Hanyakashipu was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. He disobeyed the orders of
his evil father not to offer prayers to the Lord Vishnu. To teach his son a
lesson, he sought the assistance of his sister, Holika to kill Prahlada in
fire. Holika sat on a bonfire with Prahlada in her lap, but to the amazement of
the king, the fire burnt alive the invincible Holika and Prahlada remained
unaffected and safe.
Vishnu Legend
As
per a symbolic legend to explain why Holi is celebrated as a festival of
triumph of good over evil in the honor of Hindu God Vishnu and his follower
Prahlada a God student. King Hiranyakashipu, according to a legend found in
chapter 7 of Bhagavata Purana, was the king of demonic Asuras and had earned a
boon that gave him 5 special powers- he could be
killed by neither a human being nor an animal, neither indoors nor outdoors,
neither at day nor at night, neither by astra (projectile weapons) nor by any
shastra (handheld weapons), and neither on land nor in water or air. Hiranyakashipu
grew arrogant, thinking he was God and demanded that everyone worship
Hiranyakashipu only.
Festival of Colors
Saga
Hiranyakashipu's
own son, Prahlada however disagreed with his father. He was and remained
devoted to Vishnu only. 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 to burn Prahlada. Holika was wearing a cloak that
made her immune to injury from fire, while Prahlada was not. As the fire
roared, the cloak flew from Holika and encased Prahlada, who survived while
Holika burned in fire. Vishnu, the god who appears
as an avatar to restore Dharma in Hindu beliefs, took the form of Narasimha -
half human and half lion (which is neither a human nor an animal), at dusk
(when it was neither day nor night), took Hiranyakashyapu at a doorstep (which
was neither indoors nor outdoors), placed him on his lap (which was neither
land, water nor air) and then eviscerated and killed the king with his lion
claws (which were neither a handheld weapon nor a launched weapon).
This
Holika bonfire and Holi signifies the celebration of the symbolic victory of
good over evil, of Prahlada over Hiranyakashipu and of the fire that burned
Holika.
Krishna Legend
As per various sagas, the Braj region of India, where the Hindu deity Krishna grew up, the festival is celebrated until Rang Panchmi in commemoration of the divine love of Radha for Krishna. The festivities officially usher in spring with Holi celebrated as a festival of love. There is a symbolic myth behind commemorating Krishna as well.
Saga Holi
As
a baby, Krishna developed his characteristic dark skin color because the
she-demon Putana poisoned him with her breast milk with poison. In his youth,
Krishna despaired whether the fair-skinned Radha would love him because of his
dark skin color. His mother tired of his desperation asks him to approach Radha
and ask her to color his face in any color she wanted. This she did and Radha
and Krishna became a couple without married. Ever since, the playful coloring
of Radha and Krishna's face has been commemorated as Holi. Beyond India, these
legends help to explain the significance of Holi (Phagwah) are common in some
Caribbean and South American communities of Indian origin such as Guyana and
Trinidad and Tobago. Holi is also celebrated with great rapture in Mauritius
too.
Kama and Rati Legend
As
per other Hindu traditions such as Shaivism and Shaktism the legendary
significance of Holi is linked to Shiva in yoga and deep meditation, goddess
Parvati wanting to bring back Shiva into the world, seeks help from the Hindu
God of love called Kamadeva on Vasant Panchami. The love God shoots arrows at
Shiva, the yogi opens his third eye and burns Kama to ashes. This upsets both
Kama's wife Rati (Kamadevi) and his own wife Parvati. Rati performs her own
meditative asceticism for 40 days, upon which Shiva understands, forgives out
of compassion and restores the God of love. This return of the God of love is
celebrated on the 40th day after Vasant Panchami festival as Holi. This Kama legend
and its significance to Holi has many variant forms, particularly in South
India.
Cultural Significance
This
Holi festival has a cultural significance among various Hindu traditions of the
Indian subcontinent. It is the festive day to end and rid oneself of past
errors to end conflicts by meeting others, a day to forget and forgive each
other bad deeds. People pay or forgive debts, as well as deal a new with those
in their lives. Holi also marks the start of spring for many the start of the
New Year, an occasion for people to enjoy the changing seasons and make new
friends too.
Variant Indian Religions
The
Mughal Indian emperor Jahangir celebrating Holi with ladies of the zenana.
This Holi festival has
traditionally been also observed by non-Hindus such as by Jains and Newar
Buddhists -Nepal.
During Mughal Era
During
Mughal India, Holi was celebrated with such exuberance that people of all
castes could throw color on the Emperor. According to Sharma 2017, "there
are several paintings of Mughal emperors celebrating Holi" too. Grand
celebrations of Holi were held at the Lal Qila (Red Fort), where the festival
was also known as Eid-e-gulaabi or Aab-e-Pashi. Mehfils were held throughout
the walled city of Delhi with aristocrats and traders alike participating.
Bahadur Shah Zafar himself wrote a song for the festival, while poets such as
Amir Khusrau, Ibrahim Raskhan, Nazeer Akbarabadi and Mehjoor Lakhnavi relished
it in their writings about Holi.
Sikh Era
Sikhs
have traditionally celebrated the festival, at least through the 19th century,
with its historic texts referring to it as Hola. Guru Gobind Singh – the last
human guru of the Sikhs - modified Holi with a 3-day Hola Mohalla extension
festival of martial arts. The extension started the day after the Holi festival
in Anandpur Sahib where Sikh soldiers would train in mock battles, compete in
horsemanship, athletics, archery and military exercises alike.
The
Holi was observed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his Sikh Empire that extended
across what are now northern parts of India and Pakistan too (were one India).
According to a report by Tribune India, Sikh court records state that 300
mounds of colors were used in 1837 by Ranjit Singh and his officials in Lahore.
Ranjit Singh would celebrate Holi with others in the Bilawal gardens, where
decorative tents were set up. In 1837, Sir Henry Fane who was the
commander-in-chief of the British Indian army joined the Holi celebrations
organized by Ranjit Singh. A mural in the Lahore Fort was sponsored by Ranjit
Singh and it showed the Hindu God Krishna playing Holi with Gopis. After the
death of Ranjit Singh, his Sikh sons and others continued to play Holi every
year with colors and lavish festivities.
Holi Celebrations in Various Parts of India
The
spirit of Holi is just beyond the imagination. It can only be felt and quite
difficult to express in words. This festival is celebrated with immense gaiety
with different traditions in various parts of India.
