The Colorful Event The most colorful festival of India, Holi, is celebrated to mark the begining of spring season. During the month of March, on Phalgun Purnima, the festival is celebratd with heavy enthusiasm. Though the festival is observed in whole India, Uttar Pradesh is most enthusiastic about Holi. As per legends, evil Holika (who was blessed that she could not be burnt by fire) tried to kill her religious nephew, Prahalad, by taking him in a fire. Prahalad got saved from fire, but Holika died. The festival is celebrated to mark the burning of self-conceit, selfishness, greed, lust, hatred and all the undesirable demoniac tendencies, propensities, thoughts and behaviours.
The festival starts at midnight, when a bon fire is made to mark death of Holika. Next day celebrations starts from coloring people of all age groups by wet and dry colors. The day celebrations starts from morning and groups of people flock to friends, relatives and other native's places. Its impossible to identify any particular person from the group of people, due to heavily painted face and dress. This is followed by sumptous food, specially with sweet dish like Ghujhiya. Evening is the time when people dress up in there best and go to meet relatives and friends. Holi has a traditional significance of social harmony between the various classes of society. It is the day when all classes of people are free to draw all parts of society into a celebration. The celebrations of holi festival in india are usually carried out on people of different class on each other, thus representing a time for breaking down barriers.
Holi in Different Cities Holi, a unique kind of festival, has variants in celebration across the state. All the major cities have special ways of celebrating the Holi. Some of them are:
Braj Holi In Braj area, celebrations start a week earlier than rest of India. Men from Nandagaon (Krishna's village) raid Barsana (Radha's village) to raise a flag over Shri Radhikaji temple. They receive a thunderous welcome as the women of Barsana greet them with long wooden sticks. The men are soundly beaten as they attempt to rush through town to reach Shri Radhikaji's temple. Men are well padded as they are not allowed to retaliate. In this mock battle the men try their best not to be captured. The only weapon men have with them are the waterguns, by which they drench the ladies and distract them. The colors used in whole procession are totally natural and are made 1 month before Holi.
Varanasi Holi The Varanasi Holi is altogether different from Braj Holi, except the color factor. The Holi celebrations continue for as long as 10 days across the city. The ghats of Varanasi are completely covered with colors and the water in river Ganges also gets heavily colored. People move in groups from one localty to other, taking in more people and expanding the group. Music, dance and food are a must in these groups. The evenings are eventful, with variuos events taking place on Ghats. Thandai, a milk preparation, with Bhaang (Cannabis leaves) is consumed to get more enthusiastic.
Kanpur Holi Holi in Kanpur is celebrated for 7 days. The tradition of celebrating Holi for seven days is relatively new. During the British rule in India, several freedom fighters were arrested on grounds of celebrating Holi, which involved masses. They were freed after Holi. In a rage over the issue, the freedom fighters
celebrated Holi for seven days and organised a grand fair known as Ganga Mela. Still Ganga Mela is celebrated in the city and is considered more auspicious than Holi.
Lucknow Holi Holi in Lucknow reflects the Nawab's culture and ettiquetes. Though the celebrations involve wet colors, but dry colors, made from natural resources are used more. Gulal and natural colors are used in place of chemical colors. People are not roughly colored, but gently, so that other person should not gets irritated.
Holi in other cities like Allahabad, Gorakhpur and Jhansi involve almost similar celebrations, but the local customs is what makes them differ from each other.
Religious and Cultural Importance The festival of Holi falls on Purnima of Phalgun. The day is important for Hindus for following reasons
1. It was on this day that Lord Shiva opened his third eye and reduced Kamadeva (the god of love) to ashes.
2. It was on this day that
Holika, the sister of the demon king Hiranyakasyap, who tried to kill the child devotee Prahlad by taking him on her lap and sitting on a pyre of wood which was set ablaze.
Holika was burnt to ashes while Prahlad came out safe.
3. It was on this day that an ogress called Dhundhi, who was troubling the children in the kingdom of Prthu was made to run away for life, by the shouts and pranks of the mischievous boys. Though she had secured several boons that made her almost invincible, this - noise, shouts, abuses and pranks of boys - was a chink in her armour due to a curse of Lord Shiva
