When and where is it celebrated?

Holi is a popular festival of Hinds, which is celebrated in the Hindu calendar month of Phalguna. Celebration of it is can be dated back to the 4th century CE. It marks the beginning of spring after a long winter. It's celebrated around the world, although the rituals and festivities occur majorly in India and Nepal. 

Origin of the festival and its celebration

There are many mythological stories behind the celebration of Holi, the one being most popular  is Holika dhahan and triumph of Prahlad (good) over Holika, sister of demon Hrinakshayap (evil). Another was Lord Krishna smearing the faces of Radha and Gopis with colours, leading to the celebration of the festival of colours. Another legend of Holi which is popular in Southern part of India is that of Lord Shiva and Kaamadeva. Kaamdeva tried disrupting Lord Shiva meditative state, outraged Lord Shiva burnt him to ashes. With Rati (Kaam deva’s wife) penance, Lord Shiva grants life to Kaama, people in south celebrate this return of Lord of Passion Kaamadeva on the 40th day after Vasant Panchami festival as Holi.

The day before Holi 2021 is called Holika Dahan. The rituals begin on the night of the full moon. Fires are lit on street corners to symbolize the burning of the demoness Holika. A number of things like wheatgrass, sticks from the harvest, coconut and sweets are offered to the fire God. People assemble around the fire place to pay their gratitude. They pray to Lord to protect them and cast away the evil spirits. The festival of colours or Dulhendi happens on the next day. It is celebrated in North India by smearing natural and artificial colours, playing with  flowers, water guns (pichkaris), water balloons; singing-dancing and savoring traditional delicacies, like gunjiyas, bhang, and other sweets.

Socio-cultural Significance

All the religious stories behind the origin of the festival, lead us to the moral of the ultimate victory of good over evil. All these legends inspire the people to follow the path of truth, goodness, and dharma in their lives and lead us to believe in the virtue of being truthful.

In addition, Holi is celebrated at a time of the year when the harvest are in full bloom and farmers are looking forward to a good harvest. This gives people a good reason to rejoice, celebrate, make merry and share their happiness with others.

In a way Holi also helps to bring the people of society together and strengthen the social fabric of our nation. The festival removes the boundaries of caste, gender, religion, status, as everyone come together irrespective of their differences and enjoy the festivities together, with a spirit of bonhomie and brotherhood. It is evident as the festival is celebrated by rich, poor, Hindus, non-Hindus in all parts of India. The spirit of Holi is reflected with people of all age groups playing with colours and not minding anyone sprinkling colours with a popular statement ‘Bura na a manno Holi hai!’. As a part of the ritual, people visit friends, family and neighbors and share sweets and greetings. This aids in strengthening relationships and developing emotional bonds between people.

Symbolic meaning

The celebration also symbolizes forgiveness. The word ‘Ho-Li’ denotes forgiving even your enemies, and moving ahead in life without harboring any negative/ feelings against anyone indicating whatever done is done, and having a new, positive beginning.

Holi is the celebration of life itself. The different colors of Holi blue, red, yellow, green symbolize life, energy, hope, positivity, vigor and spirituality. Each colour signifies a unique meaning, emotion, and connection with nature. Green symbolizes new beginnings, harvest, fertility, growth, balance, health and wealth; Red signifies passion, vitality fertility, love, beauty. Yellow symbolizes sunshine, thought, wisdom, orderliness and energy. Blue is associated with Spirituality and Divinity. The playing with colours also denotes imbibing the spirit of these colours in our life, and making our life more happy, purposeful and divine.

How to celebrate it according to Vedic Tradition

In the modern times, Holi is commonly played with artificial colors made up of harmful chemicals which can cause various skin diseases, allergies, asthma, and even cancers. From the vedic point of view Holi is to be played from natural colours like turmeric, besan (for yellow and orange colour), beetroot (for red colour), amla powder (black or brown colour), spinach coriander, mint (for green colour), flowers like Palaash, Marigold petals which does not pollute the nature and also provide people with body resistance to fight diseases and enhance their endurance to withstand summer heat. As Holi is the festival of connecting with people across boundaries, it is to be celebrated with making up with people with whom we hold grudges or animosity and removing differences resulting from ego.