Holi, the colorful Hindu spring festival, is celebrated on the full moon day in the month of Phalugna or Falguna (February – March). The next day, Dhuleti 2010 date is March 1 . Talk about Dhuleti and the first thing that comes to mind is playing with colours – throwing of colored water and colored powder on one another. Holi festival is largely associated with Lord Krishna and it said that in his childhood and teenage, Krishna played the festival with Gopas and Gopis in Vrindavan.
Radha-Krishna Legend
Holi is also celebrated in memory of the immortal love of Lord Krishna and Radha. The young Krishna would complain to his mother Yashoda about why Radha was so fair and he so dark. Yashoda advised him to apply colour on Radha's face and see how her complexion would change. In the legends of Krishna as a youth he is depicted playing all sorts of pranks with Randha and the gopis . One prank was to throw colored powder all over them. Holi is celebrated with eclat in the villages around Mathura, the birth-place of Krishna.
Somehow, the lovable prank of Krishna where he applied colour on Radha and other gopis using water jets called pichkaris gained acceptance and popularity. So much so that it evolved as a tradition and later, a full-fledged festival. Till date, use of colours and pichkaris is rampant in Holi. Lovers long to apply colour on their beloveds face and express their affection for each other.
On the afternoon of this auspiscious day Dharamdev and Bhaktimata gave birth to God 'Nar Narayan' who is the king and the Lord of 'Bharat Khand' . Thus on this day, Indians put up cradles decorated with variety of flowers and blossoms and make God swing on the cradles and celebrate their Lord's birth. Thereafter they splash coloured water and colour powders on each other and share their joy.'God saved Prahlad'; this is another reason for this colourful festival's excitement.
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The 'Lord Supreme', almighty Lord Swaminarayan celebrated this festival more than others with a lot of playfulness and given a colorful name 'Rangotsav'.In these celebrations people used to turn up in huge numbers at Gadhpur, Sarangpur and Vadtal. The popular 12 doors swing in which Lord Swaminarayan swang at Vadtal and delighted his devotees by emerging in 12 different forms at the same time; was on this particular day, in Samvat 1872.
Holi is also a day to celebrate with friends and neighbors. People perform havan and offer the new grains that are harvested to the gods. The history of the origin of Holi goes back to Hindu mythology when Lord Krishna killed the demon "Madhu" in ancient Braj or modern Mathura in U.P. Although the festival is based on mythology, it now signifies the coming of spring.
On "Dhuleti" the following morning, the are streets filled with people dancing, splashing and throwing colored powder and spraying colored water with "pitchkaris" or water guns and even dousing each other with buckets of water. Kids love this festival as they have fun with water ballons, gulal and pitchkaris.
"Gulal" is the name of the red colored powder used during the festival of Holi. Holi powders come in a range of colors from orange, yellow, green, purple, blue to even metallic. "Pitchkari" or water gun filled with colored water to spray and soak your friends with. |
