When Holi rolls around, you know it immediately. Children shrieking with joy, pichkari water pistols firing in every direction, small water bombs flying here and there. Every household knows there will be a huge celebration — and a lot of colourful clothes to wash at the end. But have you ever stopped to wonder what this festival of colors is really about?
Holi is one of the most vibrant festivals celebrated not just in Bharat, or India, but all over the world. It arrives after the lazy stretch of winter, on the full moon day in the month of Phalgun, which roughly falls between February and March in the Gregorian calendar. It also marks the arrival of spring.
The festival is seen as the triumph of good over evil — and beyond that, a celebration of eternal love. Holi is traditionally celebrated over two days: Holika Dahan, also called Choti Holi, and Rang Panchami, or Dhuleti. The traditions and ways of celebration vary across the country and the world, but the love and happiness are felt at the same level everywhere.
Holika Dahan / Choti Holi
This observance comes the day before the color celebration actually begins. On this day, people gather in large numbers in front of a huge pyre and perform a pradakshina — a circumambulation — around it. What we learn from our elders is that this day celebrates the victory of good over evil.
The story goes that a demon king, Hiranyakashyapu, secured a boon from the gods that made him effectively immortal. Blinded by his own power and arrogance, he demanded that everyone worship him. And the downfall of this demon king, who believed himself to be a god, came in the form of his own son, Prahladh, who instead worshipped Lord Vishnu.
Enraged by this betrayal, Hiranyakashyapu tried various ways to kill his son, who survived each time by the grace of Lord Vishnu. On one occasion, the king asked his sister Holika — who had also received a boon that she would never be harmed by fire — to help. Prahladh was made to sit on the lap of his aunt Holika as the fire was lit. Such was Vishnu's grace, however, that in the end it was Holika who was immolated and burnt to death, while the great devotee of Shri Vishnu survived without a single scratch. Soon after, the demon king Hiranyakashyapu himself met his end at the hands of Shri Vishnu in his Narasimha avatar — half lion, half human.
To this day, people celebrate this day as the victory of good over evil, and pray that all their bad karma, ill feelings, and negativity burn away in the bonfire before them.
Rang Panchami / Dhuleti
This is the day when the lines of caste, creed, gender, age, and hate all blur and overlap with the colors of joy, love, and happiness. The festival reaches its full peak — not just the children, but even the elders celebrate with full enthusiasm.
The festival is also seen as a celebration of eternal love, linked to Shri Krishna, an avatar of Lord Vishnu himself, who used colors as a way of erasing the lines of color between him and Shri Radha. Legend says Shri Krishna, also known as Shyam because of his dark — black-blue — complexion, showed the world the meaning of eternal and true love by coloring Radha, who had a fairer skin. The word "love," so loosely thrown around, has a much deeper significance here. Understanding the relationship between Shri Krishna and Radha Rani can throw light on the essence of true and eternal love.
People around the world celebrate in their own unique style. One such tradition, called Lathmar Holi — where "lath" means stick and "mar" means to beat — is celebrated with great pomp in the state of Uttar Pradesh in Bharat. People say it is an enactment of the episode when Shri Krishna colored Radha Rani and the other Gopis, who then decided to playfully beat Shri Krishna and his friends with huge bamboo sticks, or lathis.
No matter which story you attach to the festival of colors, one thing is for sure: it brings people together regardless of caste, creed, society, age, gender, or class. It celebrates unity, it celebrates love, and it celebrates togetherness. And in the end, that is all that really matters.