Everything You Need To Know About The Holi Festival!

What is Holi festival?

When you think of Holi, think of colors, lots of colors. If ever there were a festival characterized by vibrant colors, it’s the Holi festival. Originated long ago in India, it has since spread to various parts of Nepal and the Indian subcontinent. Deservingly known as both the “festival of colors” and the “festival of love,” this festival is celebrated to signify the victory of good over evil and of love over hatred. Notably, the festival also coincides with the conclusion of winter and the onset of spring, yet another metaphor toward the promotion of good, and the minimization of the bad. From Jamaica to Guyana, South Africa to Trinidad and Tobago, the Holi Festival celebrates bountiful harvests, healthy families, and the perpetuity of love’s victory over temporary darkness.

Welcoming the spring season, Holi also celebrates fertility, color, and love. Learn more about the premier Hindu spring festival. Markedly notable for its profound color coordination among participants, and for the overall optimism that surrounds the event itself, the Holi Festival stands as one of the world’s finest celebrations of all that is good. Each color respectively represents a positive item or quality, from the blues of the sky and the sea to the reds that point toward passion and love.

How is Holi celebrated?

The Holi Festival itself is outlined by a series of well-defined rituals and practices. The festival is respected as much for its dated history as it is for the regimented rituals that typify the yearly celebration. Follow along with several of the most popular rituals, below.

The Holika pyre must first be prepared for specific standards. Woods, together with other flammable items of particular importance, are assembled before the onset of the Holi Festival, for the purpose of lighting the pyre. Materials are consolidated in public areas and in the center of local communities, as locals await the start of the event. A Holika effigy is beset atop the pyre once it is set to be lit, as tradition specifies.

The Holi Festival is segmented into two individual days, each of particular importance in Hindu culture. The first day is renowned as Holika Dahan, otherwise known as Chhoti Holi. After prayers are uttered over the previously compiled Holika pyre, it is lit around sunset, as is custom. Sometimes, there is even singing and dancing around the pyre, recognition of the joy accompanied by the celebration of new opportunities.

Next day, celebrations will take on a different nature. The second day is known by a wide variety of names, including Phagwah, Bali Holi and Dhulandi. This second-day ceremony is much more of an outward celebration, as those partaking in the Hindu custom will spread colors on one another, as the festival itself enters full swing. Dry colors are employed by the participants and celebrate the festival together. Some who celebrate the Holi Festival are even known to take to the streets, with drums and other musical instruments that well demonstrate outward joy. To commemorate the yearly event, households cook up Gujiya, a special treat that is consumed in large quantities during the Holi Festival.

Where is the best place to celebrate Holi in India?

What was once celebrated exclusively in India has now spread as far as Nepal and Jamaica and to many other countries. Even so, the festival itself is still best celebrated in its native county of origin.

In India itself, massive Holi Festival celebrations take place in Barsana. Rooted in legend as the place where the Barsana women chased away Krishna, this location features a main, yearly Holi festival celebration at the temple of Ladliji. In keeping with the tradition, men will actually travel to Barsana on the first day of the festival, to take after Krishna and tease the women. The women will then chase the men with sticks, again reminiscent of the legend of Krishna itself.

Shantiniketan also hosts Holi Festival celebrations, that need to be seen to be believed. Here, many students will dress in yellow for commemorative purposes, and perform traditional, cultural dances in celebration. Interestingly, these celebrations will actually begin a day before the Holi Festival officially commences, marking an important tradition native to Shantiniketan itself. Tourists favorably will arrive early and are often invited to take part in the dances, as well as the associated celebrations.

Another great place to celebrate the Holi Festival is in Goa, where the event is referred to as “Shigmostav.” Prayers to both the city gods and goddesses begin the celebration on a somber note before parades are held for a full five days! Dances and performed skits characterize the event itself, as well as the bright colors so common to the holistic experience. Goa beaches are also in on the action, turned colors for the only time of the year. Goa is a tourist favorite to celebrate the Holi Festival, in large part because of the many modes of public transportation that allow you to easily reach the event itself.

What are the legends surrounding the festival?

Much of the significance surrounding the Holi Festival is centered on the ubiquity of local legends. Among these legends, the most popular one is that of Holika Dahan. Legend has it that King Hiranyankashipu had an intense desire to be immortal and with devotion, prayers, and penances, he was granted powers which made him invincible. Out of arrogance, the king ordered that only he be worshiped as a god. Prahlada, his son was a staunch devotee of Vishnu and thus, could not worship his father, expressed as much to the kin, to the anger of Hiranyankashipu. Hiranyankashipu attempted in vain to kill Prahlada multiple times, even employing his evil sister Holika for assistance. Holika wore her special cloak and sat on a bonfire with Prahlada to kill him, but her trickery was ineffective against the goodness of Prahlada, who was saved.

Another famous legend is that of Radha and Krishna, around which much of the Holi Festival is based. When Krishna was no more than an infant, his skin turned blue after he consumed the milk of Putana, a renowned demon. He was thus saddened when the village women would provide him undue attention, solely to the odd color of his skin. His mother then told him to go to Radha, and apply color to her face as he saw fit. Once he did so, the two became a couple, and the event itself marked the beginning of the Holi’s concentration on colors!