The Day We Celebrate Holi

Holika Dahan

       Holi is celebrated all over India every year in the month of March. Popularly known as the festival of colours, Holi has all the people big or small soaked in festivity and drenched in colour from head to toe. But, how many of us know the real reason behind celebrating Holi? I'm sure most of us do. But the thing is that we have forgotten the reason why Holi is celebrated and according to our convenience very easily converted the festival into something of our liking.

        The name Holi is derived from Holika. According to legends, Holika was the evil sister of Hiranyakashipu. Hiranyakashipu was a king who had seeked a boon from God that no one could kill him. This made him feel powerful and made him greedy. He felt he was more powerful than God and wanted people to worship him. However, his own son Pralhad refused to do so. This made Hiranyakashipu much angry and he tried every bit like putting Pralhad in a vessel of boiling oil or throwing him off a mountain to kill Pralhad. But none of them worked and Pralhad was saved everytime by Lord Vishnu. 

          Upon seeing the failing attempts of her brother to kill Pralhad, Holika offered help and said that she would sit on a burning pile with Pralhad to kill him. Holika had a boon that she could stay safe in fire, but, it worked only if she entered the fire alone. Holika must have forgotten this and entered the fire with Pralhad thinking that nothing will happen to her. However, as the boon only worked if she entered the fire alone, Holika was burnt to death by the fire and Pralhad was once again saved by Vishnu. This was the victory of good over evil.

         The legend has a story, but there was also a scientific reason behind celebrating Holi. Now the weather has mood swings (because of us humans, of course), but before the weather was all good all set. The day of Holi was the end on winters and the start of summers. So in olden days on the day of Holi people would burn a bonfire for the warmth & the next day would apply the ashes on the body and bath with cold water. 

        We still see Holika Dahan, but now, colours have made a way through, way before Rang Panchmi. The main reason behind celebrating Holi is the Holika Dahan, the victory of good over evil. However, people don't seem to get it. Therefore, people start to play with colours way before Rang Panchmi & the amount of water wasted, I better not talk about that.

        Like I said in the beginning, we have completely forgotten the main reason behind celebrating Holi and very cleverly converted the festival into something that we want. And I am not returning home all drenched in colour and writing this blog. I am not even someone celebrating World Water Day a day before and then wasting all the water saved the next day on Holi. I have stopped playing Holi from the past 10 years, because I realised that this is not Holi that we our playing. It is just wastage of water. I am not against celebrating Holi, I really love to watch people play Holi, meet friends, have fun, etc,etc. I am just against people not realising the main reason behind celebrating Holi. & I just hope that this bit, helps people realise what is Holi really celebrated for. Lets do our bit to save the earth. Its better to save than to sit and cry later. So, if you can please try to save water that is wasted during Holi. & celebrate Holi with true spirit and not just to show off. & save the colours for Rang Panchmi.