Holi

The colourful festival of Holi is celebrated on Phalgun Purnima which comes in February end or early March. Holi festival has an ancient origin, legends and it celebrates the victory of 'good' over 'bad'. This year Holi will be celebrated on March 17 across India with lot of fun and joy, just like its celebrated every year

Legend has it that, Hiranyakashyap wanted everyone in his kingdom to worship only him but to his great discontent, his son; Prahlad was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. Hiaranyakashyap got enraged and commanded his sister, Holika to enter a blazing fire with Prahlad in her lap. Holika had a boon whereby she could go into fire without causing any harm to herself. Nevertheless, she was not conscious that the boon worked only when she enters the fire alone. As an outcome she paid a price for her evil desires, Prahlad was saved by the grace of the God for his intense devotion. The festival, as a result, celebrates the triumph of good over evil and also the accomplishment of true devotion.

The colourful festival of Holi is celebrated by diverse names in this huge and culturally diverse country. The traditions followed for the festival vary a little and at times a lot as one moves from one state to other learning the mixture of aspects of the festival.

Nowhere is it celebrated with so much appeal and fervour as in Mathura, Vrindavan, Barsana and Nandgaon - the places connected with the birth and childhood of Lord Krishna. At Barsana Holi assumes the name of Lathmaar Holi. Here, women of Barsana give a hard time to men of Nandgaon as they come to play Holi with them. Women pull the ill-fated captives, beat them, dress them in a female clothing - yet all is in the spirit of Holi.

Women of Haryana, especially the bhabhis too get an upper hand on the day as they get a social permit to beat their devars and take a sweet settling of scores for all the naughtiness they have played on them. This revengeful tradition is called the Dulandi Holi.

Known for their love for life, Sikhs celebrate Holi in their own style and elan. At Punjab, they call it 'Hola Mohalla.' They shout, and shout their hearts out following a peculiar tradition. Besides, they also exhibit their martial arts specially 'kushti' on this day and make merry with the colours in the evening. Mouthwatering halwas, puris, gujias, a preparation of raw jack fruit and malpuas are of course, an essential part of the festivities. The only difference is that they do not light a bonfire. For Sikhs, Holi calls for the show of their physical strength and military competence as they get together at Anandpur Sahib a day after Holi to commemorate Hola Mohalla. The custom was started by the tenth and last guru of Sikh religion, Guru Gobind Singh ji and is being religiously carried forward

The most pleasurable custom of Holi, of course, apart from the play of colours is the tradition of breaking the pot. It is celebrated with much fan fair in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Here a pot of buttermilk is hung far above the ground on the streets. Men form a gigantic human pyramid and one on the top breaks the pot with his head. All this while women keep singing Holi folk songs and throwing buckets and buckets of water. The tradition has its roots in the naughty nature of Lord Krishna who was so fond of butter milk that he used to steal it from all available houses in the village. To hide the butter from young Krishna, womenfolk used to hang it high.

Holi is celebrated in the most dignified manner in the state of Bengal. At Vishwa Bharti University, founded by Rabindranath Tagore founded the tradition of celebrating Holi as 'Basant Utsav' or 'Spring Festival'. Students decorate the campus with intricate rangolis and carry out prabhat pheris in the morning.

In other parts of Bengal, Holi is celebrated as Dol Yatra where the idols of Radha and Krishna are positioned on a decorated palanquin and taken out in a parade.

In the north east, Manipuris celebrate the festival in a colourful manner for six continuous days. Here, the centuries old Yaosang Festival of Manipur combined with Holi with the introduction of Vaishnavism in the eighteenth century. The highlight of the festival here is a special Manipuri dance, called 'Thabal Chongba'.

It is the festival which produces the spirit of brotherhood and brings people close - and this is what matters most than anything else.

What boosts the spirit of Holi though is the practice of consuming the intoxicating bhang. It is usually consumed with thandai or as pakoras. People go high on it and enjoy the festival to the hilt. Other Holi delicacies include gujiya, mathri, malpua, puranpoli, dahi badas, etc. After a frenzied play of colours people love to gorge them up.