Holi, whenever this name comes up, things that pop up in our minds are gulal, gujiya, fun, laughter, and all the Bollywood Holi songs! The evergreen one – “Rang Barse Bheege chunarwali Rang Barse…Holi Hai…!!” We bet most of you all have read this with the rhythm…right?
In India, every festival has a mythological significance. Holi Festival has it too, in fact, many! There are so many different stories. For the basics, Holi marks the end of the Winter season and the beginning of Spring. It is a festival of rejuvenation, a new start, and hope. It is typically timed with the moon on Phalgun Purnima.
Holi starts with Holika Dahan, an evening prior to the main festival day (mainly in the Northern parts of India). Holika Dahan, a bonfire is lit where the effigy of Holika is burnt and celebrated for the defeat of demoness Holika. But this story is only one popular story known Nation Wide but there are many. So, let’s see more:
Origin of Holi
There are many mythological stories about Holi festivals’ origin. Like,
1. Hiranakashipu, his son Prahalad, his sister Holika and Lord Vishnu. Hirankashipu in the urge to avenge his brother’s demise from Lord Vishnu did ‘Tapasya’ for years to gain power from Lord Shiva. He was granted a boon of not being killed by a human or animal or by any weapon With the boon he started considering himself as God in front of his people and asked them to worship him. But his son, Prahalad never obeyed him. Once, this angered Hiranakashipu and he made an evil plan. He asked his sister, Holika to sit with Prahalad and pray for fire. The plan was to burn him up! Holika was immune to fire. So, she did as her brother asked her to do. But their plan did not go through as Prahalad who was reciting the name of Lord Vishnu throughout was safe. Holika burnt into ashes instead. She signifies the burning of all that is bad and eventually the ego of Hiranakashipu killed him too in hands of Lord Vishnu avatar – half human – half lion. Because of this, in some states of India like Bihar, a pyre in the form of a bonfire is lit on the day before Holi, day to remember the death of evil.
2. The second most popular story to celebrate Holi is Lord Krishna. This story originated from the state UP and it explains how the color got included in the festival of color – Holi. It is believed that Lord Krishna used to celebrate Holi with colors. He used to play Holi with his friends at Vrindavan and Gokul. They used to play pranks all across the village with his childhood companion Radha & Gopis. Thus, made this a community event of celebration of love with colors. That is why Holi celebrations at Vrindavan are unmatched!
3. The third story is lesser-known. It is the story of Sati. It is said that Sati’s father didn’t invite her husband, Lord Shiva, in one of the family rituals (Yagna) but only his daughter. This made Sati very upset. She was reluctant but Lord Shiva asked her to attend, so she went. At the time of puja (yagna) some of the priests along with her father made fun of Lord Shiva. Sati didn’t take this very well and jumped in the lit fire of the yagna. This made Shiva furious and he wrecked the world carrying burnt Sati in his arms. He eventually calmed down on requests by Lord Vishnu & Brahma. He went into deep meditation in the Himalayas. Meantime, Sati reborn as Parvati.
Parvati since childhood wished to marry Shiva. Since the world wanted Lord Shiva to wake up and also, Parvati wished to marry Him, Gods thought this is the perfect time to wake Him up. Indra Dev asked his friend Kamdev (God of Love) to help in the union of Parvati & Shiva. Kamdev took the risk and created the illusion of the Spring season. But the sudden change affected living creatures on the Earth. Shiva did awake but He opened His third eye and Kamdev got burnt into ashes! Later He realized His mistake and on Parvati’s insistence, He gave kamdev immortality in invisibility. In Tamil Nadu, Indi, the sacrifice of Kamdev is appreciated & celebrated as Holi. People apply a cooling paste of sandalwood on the idols of Kamdev as a symbol to give him relief from the burns.
Different names of Holi across India
- Adhangi Chita-Bhasm Holi in Kashi, one of the oldest cities of India. Chita-Bhasm Holi is celebrated on the second day of Ranghbhari Ekadashi, the eleventh day of the lunar month. This year it was on March 25th and it was then when the celebration of Holi begins in Kashi. It is believed that Bhagwan Shiv himself participates in the festivities.
- Holi in Rajasthan has many names like Gair Holi, Mali Holi, Brij Mahotasv, Dhulandi Holi, Dolchi Holi, Koda Maar Holi. All these names originated from different cities, cultures, and ways of celebration.
- Shimga Festival in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra.
- Dol Jatra in West Bengal, Odisha & Assam: Women predominantly wear Yellow dresses when the grand possession of Krishna is taken in the streets singing and dancing. In some parts of Odisha, it is known as Dola. There, Holi is celebrated centering Lord Jagannath.
- Phaguwa in Bihar & Jharkhand.
- Manjal Kuli in Kerala, Holi is celebrated with the name Manjal Kuli where mostly Turmeric is used for colors.
- Lathmar Holi (a local way of celebration of Holi) in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. Women run after men playfully with canes and hit them during the celebration. The men come prepared with the shield!
The diversity of India is beautiful and so are the festivals. Holi embarks on new beginnings with the beginning of a new Season – Spring. Though it has different names in different parts of our country, its significance remains the same. Holi teaches us to burn our ego, hate, propensities, greed, selfishness, for, these ruins Humankind.
So, this Holi, no matter how strange or different things may be, let’s rejuvenate ourselves once again in the new colors of tomorrow for a brighter future. The Uncommon Box wish you all a very colorful, joyous & safe Holi.
The article is written by Arthy Ramkumar (@arthy_ramkumar) &
Alisha (@yeah_me_alisha)
This article is Curated by Alisha and her Instagram id is @yeah_me_alisha
and Vaibhav, his Instagram id is @frameshade
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