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Posts Tagged ‘Holi Festival’

Holi Celebrations

Holi is the most colourful and vibrant festivals of India celebrated in different names through out the nation but the spirit remaining the same all over. this festival is celebrated with much enthusiasm and joy in the month of march, which falls in the month of phagun in the Indian calendar. The festivals is highlighted by the people celebrating, singing and dancing to the tunes of traditional songs and setting aside differences and enjoying as a group.

Holi started out as a festival called holika in the olden days, which was celebrated by the married women for their well-being where they prayed to the moon. It evolved as a fun festival during the later years and it is said that the exciting festival of holi has been mentioned in many of the ancient scripts, inscriptions and murals written around 2000 years ago. An ancient Muslim tourist to India has mentioned the celebration of holi in those days and hence from this it becomes clear that holi was celebrated by the Hindu’s as well as the Muslims. The evening before holi the entire nation is electrified with activity and the markets buzz with people who are doing their last minute shopping of gulal and abeer to surprise each other colourfully.

Legend has it that radha and Krishna were playing with the colour where Krishna was applying holi to radha and the other gopi’s around which later became the festival’s famous tradition. The holi festival is also called the festival of springs as it is celebrated at the start of the spring season and marks the beginning of hope, joy and fertility. The people wear new clothes which is an indication of new promises and the farmers are happy, what with their fields filled with new crops promising a good harvest. Its usually an

Holi Celebration

unwritten rule that you never wear a light colored or a white shirt on a holi day unless you want to become the target of children and their water missiles, holi powder and colored water filled balloons! In some states the people set up a pot filled with butter milk and tie it up high in the air so that young people make a huge human pyramid to climb up to it and break it, while women keep dumping buckets of cold water on them to deter them from reaching the top, adding to the festive spirit.

Mouth watering delicious sweets and desserts like malpua, gujiya and poli add up to the specialty of the festival. The evenings are spent by visiting relatives and exchanging wishes and dancing through the night to the local beats. Holi is also seen as a festival which instils secularism and national pride where religion is forgotten and all are one in the eyes of the celebrators. It helps remind us that the best virtues in life are a pure heart, truthfulness and honest characteristics in a person and this festival promotes the same by the use of colour.