Holi -- Festival of Colours

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Holi -- Festival of Colours

Holi is the most colourful festival of the Hindus and falls on the

Full moon day in the month of Phalgun according to the Hindu

Calendar which is the month of March as per the Gregorian Calendar.

This Holi festival has many elements of primitive and prolific rites

and reveries that have defied civilisation and prudery. During the

three days of this festival, particularly the whole country, towns,

cities and villages - go gay with merry makers, streets, parks and

public places are crowded with people, daubed in diverse colours and

looking funny. Children and youngsters vie with each other in being

original and use fast and sticky colours. It is all a mirthful

abandon for them.

 

This festival of joy, mirth and buoyancy is celebrated when both Man

and Nature cast off their winter gloom. Holi heralds the arrival of

Spring - the season of hope and new beginnings and marks the

rekindling of the spirit of life. Gulmohurs, corals, silk-cottons

and mango trees start flowering, gardens and parks present a

glorious spectacle of a riot of colours - crimson, red, pink,

orange, golden yellow, lemon and a variety of glittering greens. The

flowers breathe out their fragrance into space and brooks and

streams leap in the valleys. The joy bubbling in hearts find

expression in dance, drama and music.

 

The color, noise and entertainment that accompanies the celebration

of Holi bears witness to a feeling of oneness and sense of brother-

hood. No other festival brings home the lesson of spiritual and

social harmony as well as the festival of Holi!!

 

People celebrate this festival of colours joyously with friends and

relatives, rubbing gulal and throwing colored water on each other.

On this day, people come out wearing pure white clothes and gather

together in a common place where they play Holi with gay abandon.

The magic of playing with colour, which begins early in the morning,

continues through the day. Traditional delicacies are prepared in

advance and served while playing Holi. Families, friends, and

neighbors get together to enjoy this festival of colors. The spring

air is still cool, the water cold, but revelers make a special punch

of an intoxicant called bhang, which is mixed in milk, to add to the

festivities.

 

This festival of Holi - a festival of myriad colours, of gaity, of

friendships and re-unions all over the country. Thus Holy is

certainly a vital part of our Indian life and culture in which

religion still is a living force.