As the name suggests, this post is about Holi. Holi is the spring festival of India. Like any other festival, this festival is practiced to celebrate the victory of good over evil. In India, all the festivals that are celebrated in any culture are associated not only with the season but also with an old story or a legend. And as usual, all the stories pretty much ends with the victory of good over evil. Also, as India is a diverse country, stories related to one festival are often little different from each other in different regions or its the same story but with different characters or version. The story behind Holi that I have learned while I was growing up is the most popular version.
"There was once a devotee of Lord Vishnu (One of the supreme god among the three supreme gods or Trimurti of Hinduism) known as bhakt (disciple) Prahlad. Prahlad's father, Hrinyakashyap was an asura (demon in human form). Prahlad was told not to worship Lord Vishnu and was punished often for doing the same. When there was no stopping Prahlad, his father asked his sister Holika to burn Prahlad alive to punish him. Holika was blessed with a boon that she can not be burnt or in short she was fireproof. A big pyre was arranged and Holika sat in the middle of it with Prahlad in her lap. When pyre caught fire, the blessing backfired and Prahlad came out alive from the fire while Holika was burnt to ashes."
The moral of the story was: Evil (Hrinyakashyap and Holika) was defeated and good (Prahlad) survived. And to honor the legend Holi is celebrated in the Hindu community in all over India. Holi got its name from Holika. From many days before Holi people in the neighboring community start collecting tree branches and fallen leaves at one common designated place to make a holy pyre. Holi is celebrated in two days. On day 1 of festival people go and worship and do some rituals at the pyre. Rituals include offering cow dung cakes and other flammable things to the pyre. At night or early morning next day that is day 2 of the festival, the pyre is burnt and most of the people in the community go there to attend the ceremony. This is known as Holika Dahan (burning of Holika in the form of that pyre). In my culture, people take fresh barley stalks with them and roast the grain in that fire. After roasting barley people go to friends and relatives houses to wish them Holi and exchange roasted barley as a small customary Holi gift or offering. The guests who come to house with roasted barley are offered Holi delicacies. And after that, the main festivities starts, which is playing colors.
Holi is my most favorite festival. I like it even better than Diwali. For me, Holi is the news of spring, it is welcome to heat and bye-bye to cold, it is the time of year when we stop taking bath with hot water and start using regular tap water (Yes, in North hot water is used to take bath in winters only), it is the time to get crazy and play colors with family and friends, it is the time to eat all kind of Holi delicacies (In my family festival associated delicacies are made around Holi and not around Diwali), and flying kites (honestly could never learnt it, but enjoyed seeing my brother flying kites and competing with neighbors). In my region Holi is also the festival or an occasion to make amends with friends and family.
When I was a kid, on the first day of Holi my brother and I use to accompany my mom to the holy pyre for prayer rituals. On that day, my mom used to make garlands of nuts and candies for my brother and me, which we use to hang around our neck and walk with our mom to pyre and back. After coming back home we would break those garlands and collect chocolates, candies, and nuts out of them and enjoy them. Rest of the day was fun because it was off from school. My brother used to fly kites for the rest of the day and I use to hang out with him up at the roof and tried my level best to learn to fly a kite. In India, flying a kite is a sport which is played with neighbor kids. The sport is to cut other's kite thread with your kite thread. The trick is to cut their threads by looping your kite's thread around theirs. For that purpose, sharp glass coated threads are used to tie to the kites. Up high in the sky one never knew which kite belonged to which individual or even if one knows that person, it is only the kite flying high in the sky which mattered. It was fun to watch people trying cutting each other's kites. That day meal was also festival associated meal such as; puri, chhole, kheer, different curries and much more.
The second day we use to wake up early in the morning when my mamaji (Mother's brother) would come to our house to meet and greet Holi with roasted barley. After that other people would also start coming to our house to greet Holi to us. It was my amma (father's mother) who use to go to pyre to roast barley for the family accompanied with Munshi Chacha (please refer to my early post). As soon as the sun was fully visible the color play would start. Early on when we were kids we use to play colors with our cousins and later on when my sisters got married, their husbands would visit us especially to play Holi. Holi didn't only include playing colors but it also meant whole house, especially central courtyard and all walls around it to get colored too. There was one thing which was done in my family every year with no exception and it was to soak palash/tesu ke phool (flame-of-the-forest flowers) in the water on the first day of Holi and let them rest for the whole night so that tesu's color will seep into the water. We use to play Holi mainly with that water as it was natural and non-toxic. But that doesn't mean we didn't use store bought, toxic, unhealthy, chemical laden colors. Oh yaa, we did and loved it, which often would result in causing blisters on our skin, but who cared.
After playing Holi we would take a bath and remove colors from our skin as much as possible, but there was always a lot left and no one cared. The house used to get deep cleaned and we would eat comfort food for lunch. And, after that everyone would take a long nap because everyone use to be tired after a short night sleep and lots of fun. Later in the evening, the whole family used to go to my mamaji's house for Holi party. And, that was the end of fun-filled two days of Holi. I still remember Holi as I have played it yesterday. Up to this day I love Holi and here in the US if I can't arrange colors I just play with water with whoever I can trap in playing Holi with me. I guess festivals is the time when I miss my country the most even more than my family. I do miss playing Holi with family but what I miss the most is the whole atmosphere around us during the festivals. How everyone is preparing for festivals and markets are full of particular festival associated products. Festivals are in the air in India. I miss you my watan (country), my motherland.
Next post is about all the delicacies associated with Holi, wait for it... it is going to be legendaaaaaaary!
*I would like to mention that whatever I have written about the legend or the rituals is strictly limited to me and to what I have learned and seen while I was growing up. I don't have the authority to comment on Holi or legends associated with it. And also whatever I have written might be wrong for some people or different from what other people know or practice. Therefore, please enjoy this post as an anecdote of my life and not as a post about the festival.
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