HAPPY HOLI

SIGNIFICANCE OF HOLI

Festival of Colours

With the onset of spring, northern India gets into the colourful mood of Holi. This festival also denotes celebration due to good harvests and land’s fertility.

Holi gets us close to our religion and our mythology as it is essentially the celebration of various legends associated with the festival.

Foremost is the legend of Prahlad and Hiranyakshyap. The legend says there once lived a powerful king, Hiranyakshyap who considered himself a god and wanted everybody to worship him. To his great ire, his son, Prahlad began to worship, Lord Vishnu. To get rid of his son, Hiranyakshyap asked his sister, Holika to enter a blazing fire with Prahlad in her lap, as she had a boon to enter fire unscathed. Legend has it that Prahlad was saved for his extreme devotion for the lord while Holika paid a price for her sinister desire. The tradition of burning Holika or the 'Holika dahan' comes mainly from this legend.

This colourful festival also celebrates the eternal love of Radha and Krishna, which describes the extreme delight, Krishna took in applying colour on Radha and other gopis. This prank of Krishna later, became a trend and a part of the Holi festivities. This festival is celebrated in a grand style in the city of Mathura and Vrindavan. These are two important cities which are deeply associated to Lord Krishna.

Another legend of Holi which is extremely popular in Southern India is that of Lord Shiva and Kaamadeva.  According to the legend, people in south celebrate the sacrifice of Lord of Passion Kaamadeva who risked his life to revoke Lord Shiva from meditation and save the world.

The moral of all these legends is the ultimate victory of good over evil.

In spite of being such a colourful and gay festival, there are various aspects of Holi which makes it so significant for our lives. Though they might not be so apparent but a closer look and a little thought will reveal the significance of Holi in more ways than meets the eyes. There is every reason why we must heartily enjoy the festival and cherish the reasons for its celebrations. The festival of colour gives us an opportunity to reunite with family, friends and dear ones.

For, the festival is celebrated by non-Hindus also as everybody like to be a part of such a colourful and joyous festival.

Kids and adults come out of their house and smear each other with bright shades of gulal. Colourful waters are sprinkled on people and kids are found playing with pichkari and water balloons.  It is the kids who enjoy to the fullest.

People exchange sweets, Thandai and snacks among neighbours and friends. Popular Holi sweets are Gujiya, Ladoo, Burfi and Imarti etc. Indian festive celebration is incomplete without delicious sweets.

So when, it’s time for Holi, please don't hold yourself back and enjoy the festival to the hilt by participating with full enthusiasm in every small tradition related to the festival.

Parsan Narang

Kolkata

18th March 2016