| Holi Festival of Colours | |
|---|---|
| |
| Type | Hindu |
| Celebrations | Night before: Holika Bonfire On Holi: spray colours on others, dance, party; eat festival delicacies[1] |
| Begins | Phalgun Purnima or Pooranmashi (Full Moon) |
| 2015 date | Friday, 6 March[2] |
| 2016 date | Wednesday, 23 March |
| 2017 date | Monday, 13 March |
It is primarily observed in India, Nepal, and other regions of the world with significant populations of Hindus or people of Indian origin. In recent years the festival has spread to parts of Europe and North America as a spring celebration of love, frolic, and colours.[6][7][8]
Holi celebrations start on the night before Holi with a Holika bonfire where people gather, sing and dance. The next morning is a free-for-all carnival of colours,[5] where participants play, chase and colour each other with dry powder and coloured water, with some carrying water guns and coloured water-filled balloons for their water fight. Anyone and everyone is fair game, friend or stranger, rich or poor, man or woman, children and elders. The frolic and fight with colours occurs in the open streets, open parks, outside temples and buildings. Groups carry drums and other musical instruments, go from place to place, sing and dance. People visit family, friends and foes to throw colour powders on each other, laugh and gossip, then share Holi delicacies, food and drinks. Some drinks are intoxicating. For example, Bhang, an intoxicating ingredient made from cannabis leaves, is mixed into drinks and sweets and consumed by many.[9][10] In the evening, after sobering up, people dress up and visit friends and family.[1][11]
Holi is celebrated at the approach of the vernal equinox,[5] on the Phalguna Purnima (Full Moon). The festival date varies every year, per the Hindu calendar, and typically comes in March, sometimes February in the Gregorian Calendar. The festival signifies the victory of good over evil, the arrival of spring, end of winter, and for many a festive day to meet others, play and laugh, forget and forgive, and repair broken relationships, and is also celebrated as a thanksgiving for a good harvest.[5][12]
History and Significance[edit]
See also: Holika
There is a symbolic legend to explain why Holi is celebrated as a festival of colours. The word "Holi" originates from "Holika", the evil sister of the demon king Hiranyakashipu. The festival itself is believed to have origins from the Prahlada-Puri Temple[13] of Multan in the Punjab region. [14] The original temple of Prahladpuri is said to have been built by Prahlada, Hiranyakashipu's son.[15]
King Hiranyakashipu,[16] according to legend, was the King of Multan[17] and had earned a boon that made him virtually indestructible. He grew arrogant, thought he was God, and demanded that everyone worship only him.[1]
Hiranyakashipu's own son, Prahlada,[18] however, disagreed. He was and remained devoted to Vishnu.[11] 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.[1] 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.[11] Holika burned, Prahlada survived. Vishnu appeared and killed Hiranyakashipu. The bonfire is a reminder of the symbolic victory of good over evil, of Prahlada over Hiranyakashipu, and of the fire that burned Holika.[12] The next day when the fire cooled down, people applied ash to their foreheads,[19] a practice still observed by some people.[20] Eventually, coloured powder came to be used to celebrate Holi.
Importance of the Festival[edit]
In the Braj region of India, where the Hindu deity Krishna grew up, the festival is celebrated for 16 days (until Rangpanchmi) in commemoration of the divine love of Radha for Krishna. The festivities officially usher in spring, with Holi celebrated as a festival of love.[21] There is a symbolic myth behind commemorating Krishna as well. As a baby, Krishna developed his characteristic dark blue skin colour because the she-demon Putana poisoned him with her breast milk.[22] In his youth, Krishna despaired whether the fair-skinned Radha and other girls would like him because of his skin colour. His mother, tired of the desperation, asks him to approach Radha and colour her face in any colour he wanted. This he does, and Radha and Krishna became a couple. Ever since, the playful colouring of Radha's face has been commemorated as Holi.[23][24] Beyond India, these legends 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.[25][26] It is also celebrated with great fervour in Mauritius.[27]The Holi festival has further cultural significance. 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. People pay or forgive debts, as well as deal anew with those in their lives. Holi also marks the start of spring, and for many the start of the new year.[12][28]
Description[edit]
Holi is an important festival to Hindus. It is celebrated at the end of winter, on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalgun (February/March), (Phalgun Purnima), which usually falls in March, sometimes in late February.[29]
The festival has many purposes; most prominently, it celebrates the beginning of Spring. In 17th century literature, it was identified as a festival that celebrated agriculture, commemorated good spring harvests and the fertile land.[5] Hindus believe it is a time of enjoying spring's abundant colours and saying farewell to winter. To many Hindus, Holi festivities mark the beginning of the new year as well as an occasion to reset and renew ruptured relationships, end conflicts and rid themselves of accumulated emotional impurities from the past.[12][28]
It also has a religious purpose, symbolically signified by the legend of Holika. The night before Holi, bonfires are lit in a ceremony known as Holika Dahan (burning of Holika) or Little Holi. People gather near fires, sing and dance. The next day, Holi, also known as Dhuli in Sanskrit, or Dhulheti, Dhulandi or Dhulendi, is celebrated. Children and youth spray coloured powder solutions (gulal) at each other, laugh and celebrate, while adults smear dry coloured powder (abir) on each other's faces.[1][28] Visitors to homes are first teased with colours, then served with Holi delicacies, desserts and drinks.[30] After playing with colours, and cleaning up, people bathe, put on clean clothes, and visit friends and family.[12]
Like Holika Dahan, Kama Dahanam is celebrated in some parts of India. The festival of colours in these parts is called Rangapanchami, and occurs on the fifth day after Poornima (full moon).[31]
History and rituals[edit]
Holi is an ancient Hindu festival with its cultural rituals. It is mentioned in the Puranas, Dasakumara Charita, and by the poet Kālidāsa during the 4th century reign of Chandragupta II.[3] The celebration of Holi is also mentioned in the 7th-century Sanskrit drama Ratnavali.[32] The festival of Holi caught the fascination of European traders and British colonial staff by the 17th century. Various old editions of Oxford English Dictionary mention it, but with varying, phonetically derived spellings: Houly (1687), Hooly (1698), Huli (1789), Hohlee (1809), Hoolee (1825), and Holi in editions published after 1910.[5]There are several cultural rituals associated with Holi:[33]
- Prepare Holika pyre for bonfire
Days before the festival people start gathering wood and combustible materials for the bonfire in parks, community centers, near temples and other open spaces. On top of the pyre is an effigy to signify Holika who tricked Prahalad into the fire. Inside homes, people stock up on pigments, food, party drinks and festive seasonal foods such as gujiya, mathri, malpuas and other regional delicacies.
- Holika dahan
- Play with colours
Groups sing and dance, some playing drums and dholak. After each stop of fun and play with colours, people offer gujiya, mathri, malpuas and other traditional delicacies.[35] Cold drinks, including adult drinks based on local intoxicating herbs,[9] are also part of the Holi festivity.
- Other variations
In south India, some worship and make offerings to Kaamadeva, the love god of Indian mythology, on Holi.
- The after party
Regional names, rituals and celebrations[edit]
Holi (Hindi: होली, Nepali: होली, Punjabi: ਹੋਲੀ) is also known as Phakuwa or Phagwah (Assamese: ফাকুৱা), Festival of Colours, or Doḷajātra in Odisha, and as Dol Jatra (Assamese: দ’ল যাত্ৰা) or Basantotsav ("spring festival") in West Bengal and Assam. The customs and celebrations vary between regions of India.Holi is of particular significance in the Braj region, which includes locations traditionally associated with the Lord Krishna: Mathura, Vrindavan, Nandgaon, Uttar Pradesh, and Barsana, which become tourist destinations during the season of Holi.[21]
Outside India, Holi is observed by the minority Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan as well in countries with large Indian subcontinent diaspora populations such as Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Mauritius, and Fiji. The Holi rituals and customs outside South Asia also vary with local adaptations.
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