The Holy Festival of Holi

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by: DamienFlemming90x
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Word Count: 446
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 Time: 11:40 PM

Celebrating Holi:

"Holi" one of the most popular Hindu celebrations celebrated early in the year season. It's celebrated on Phalgun purnima the final full moon day of lunar calendar also called panchang. The celebration is widely celebrated with lots of enjoyment and enjoyment not only in India but in all the countries that have Indian Diaspora.

Rituals of Holi:

The event generally starts from 'falgun purima' and is celebrated till 'teras'. Around the evening of falgun purnima there's tradition of holika-dahan or the bone fire which symbolizes victory of excellent over the bad. Its symbolic meaning is to burn the demon inside you and lead a pious life. From the next day of Holi the festival of colours begins. The next day is called 'Dhulandi' which is the festival of colors. From dhulandi to teras color is played. In between the little festivals like rangpanchmi, rangchhat, sheetla saptmi, auliya ashthami, dashamata poojan, rangteras etc are also celebrated. Dhulandi, Rangpanchmi, Rang Chat, Rang teras are just for playing the colours. Sheetla saptami, auliya ashtami are to worship deity sheetla and dashamata to worship deity dasha meaning good condition. The 16 day Brij-Holi is the most popular one. Lathmaar holi of brij is really a tourist fascination nowadays.

Concept and Good reputation for Holi:

Holi is related to the legendary story of Prahlad and Holika. Prahlad was the son of devil Hiranakashyapa who believed himself as god but Prahlad denied agreeing to him as god and he kept worshiping Lord Vishnu whom Hiranakashyapa thought to be the best enemy to him. To punish Prahlad Hiranakashyapa and the sister Holika chose to burn Prahlad. As Holika had the boon that she could never be burnt so she sat on the fire with Prahlad but Holika burnt and Prahlad arrived on the scene safe. The storyline symbolizes victory of good within the bad and also the end of evil.

There are another stories too related with holi about Lord Krishna and also the gopis. It's thought that The almighty Krishna with his pranks on Gopis popularized this festival in Brij. There's one more story of Kamdev and Rati. Who was destroyed by Lord Shiva's anger for disturbing his deep breathing but for sake of his wife Rati Lord Shiva restored him as well as for commemoration of the event Holi is well known.

Holi is not just the festival to celebrate the victory of excellent over evil or it's not only the festival of colours but Holi is the festival of hearts. There are no restriction, no differences but just the like to be spread with colors.