The Month of Falgun (Spring-March) is desperately being awaited by the Indian folks be it India or wherever they are spread across the world. And if the Indians are outside the world they make their every possible effort to visit India to celebrate this Holi festival with their friends and community on their motherland. Even if they can’t afford to accomplish their dream to celebrate Holi with their family and closed ones then they organize their own big celebration and invite people or join some other community for Celebration of this grand & lovely festival in their city.
Holi is not only a festival like which you simply forget but it is very close to each Indians’ soul that is related to the true color of love, compassion, brotherhood and benevolence. Holi is the festival that teaches that no matter how much the difference between our hearts finally the love wins the hearts when people make splash of beautiful colors on each-other and offering sweets speak, “Bura na Mano Bhaiya Holi hai”, i.e. “Don’t mind, buddy, Let’s celebrate Holi”.
And why not, after all Holi is the festival to forget your mutual problems and misunderstandings and hug each other with a new start with a new spring of your life.
Holi has a great & long historical value in the Indian culture and a famous legend about Holi is that it is being celebrated on the wining of Bhakt Prahalad (a devotee of Lord Vishnu) on his aunt, the demon ‘Holika’. It is said that Holika tried to kill her nephew Prahalad on request of her brother, the father of Bhakt Prahalad. After many unsuccessful cunning efforts to kill Bhakt Prahalad, finally, she sat on fire taking the little Prahalad on her lap. The intention of the brother-sister duo was to kill him by burning him on fire. The interesting thing was that Holika was gifted with the boon to not be burned by fire. But as always happened the goodness got its eternal victory over the evil and as a result the Lord saved his intimate devotee Prahalad who survived without even a bit harm and Holika got burned in the same fire.
Holi festival takes various forms in the different parts of India. In different regions of the country people play it with the same spirit and love but their ways of celebrations are varied. The Holi celebrations are most famous of the Mumbai and Barsana, the village of the Shri Radha Ji, the lover Integral part of Lord Krishna. In Mumbai the Holi is played on the streets where people hang a earthen-pot on higher place with the help of strings amid the road, filling it with milk or color then many groups try their effort to break it. And the winner gets the huge applause of the people.
In Barsana there’s played the ‘Latthmaar Holi’ in which the women covering their face with the long veil of their saree hit the men on their back holding a long thick stick while men has to protect themselves with the help of shields. It is hugely famous in north India.
Likewise there are other state like Kerala, West Bengal, Gujarat, Manipur, Goa, Orrissa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kashmir and Delhi has their own ways to celebrate Holi festival. Sure, the ways are different but reason is one as their soul is one. The Holi is a beginning of new Hindi year and so it is a welcoming fiesta for starting life with the excellent & vibrating colors.
