Festival
There are many festive emotions around the world that can never fade from the faces of every person. These festive emotions keep on growing with each passing season. Each and every country celebrates their festivals with great joy and happiness. The Indian festivals are based on most of the religious or mythological patterns. There are many such stories that can easily describe about the reasons behind these festivals.
People express their happiness by dancing, singing, and enjoying every moment of celebration of the festivals. People in India are completely devoted towards the celebrations and the related ritual ceremonies related to the festivals. Holi is one of the festivals where people enjoy and express their love towards the festival by sharing happiness with each other. Holi is celebrated by playing with colors, and is mainly celebrated in India as one of the main festival. The festival of Holi, does have a mythological reason behind its celebration.
According to the Indian Mythology, ‘Prahlad’, son of a king ‘Hiranyakashyapu’, was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu. But ‘Hiranyakashyapu’ did not let his son to pray Lord Vishnu. He always wants his son to devote himself praying the king. Many times he conspires to kill his son, but always failed. ‘Holika’, the sister of ‘Hiranyakashyapu’, had the blessings from Lord Agni that fire cannot even touch her. ‘Holika’ was blessed with immunity from fire. After many failures, ‘Hiranyakashyapu’ asked his sister, ‘Holika’ to sit with ‘Prahlad’ in the fire.
As ‘Prahlad’ was the great devotee of Lord Vishnu, he came alive out of the fire and ‘Holika’ was burnt alive in the fire. This happened because ‘Holika’ wants to kill ‘Prahlad’, but ‘Prahlad’ was innocent about their conspiracy and all time he chanted the name of Lord Vishnu. On the next morning, it was seen that ‘Holika’ was burnt alive and the ashes turned into the Tesu flowers. ‘Prahlad’ was seen playing with the flowers spread all over. This event turned into defeat of ‘Hiranyakashyapu’.
The event is now celebrated as the festival of Holi, because ‘Prahlad’ was seen playing with the Tesu Flowers. The burning of ‘Holika’ is celebrated as Hoilka Dahan prior to the second day of Holi called Dulhendi. According to the Hindi calendar, Holi falls on the last Full Moon day of Falguna Maas. The Holi festival is celebrated in different ways at different places. At some places the festival is enjoyed by playing with colors, at some places it is played with mud, at some places with long wooden stick, Tesu flowers, cow dung, etc.
At some places, the celebration of the festival extends for 3-5 days. On this festival, people meet their friends and relatives, exchange sweets and wish them Happy Holi! The preparations of the festival begin from 1 month before the day of the celebration. People make Gujiyas, Gulab Jamun, Dahi Bhallas, and many more things to eat. But Gujiya is one of the important dishes on the occasion of Holi. On this day people forget all their sorrows and play with full enthusiasm by throwing colors and splashing color water on each other.
