What is Holi
One of India’s biggest celebrated festivals, Holi is also considered the most colorful and joyful festivals with no limits. The festival is not only celebrated in India but also in other countries. It also symbolizes the start of spring, a happy season with lots of hopes.
It is celebrated in all parts of India but yes the way it is celebrated or the rituals they follow may differ from one place to another. We also find lot many paintings and scriptures depicting the holi celebration.
Why is Holi festival celebrated in India
Holika Dahan is the ritual which takes place on Holi. There is a mythology of the demon king Hiranyakashyap who wanted his people to call him God and worship him rather any other God. As the God also granted him a boon that he can not be killed by any human being. But his own son was great devotee of Lord Vishnu. So he called up his sister Holika who had a magical scarf.
The wearer of that scarf can not be burnt if the wearer sits on fire. Then Holika as his brother said to do sat on fire taking Prahlad in her lap. But as there’s a saying about God, God saves his devotee’s life Holika got burnt and Prahlad who kept on chanting Narayana name remained untouched by fire. That’s the reason Holi festival is celebrated as triumph of good over evil.
Why Holi festival is the Symbol of Love
The custom of applying colour on holi is also associated with Radha and Krishna, Krishna who had a blue complexion used to be envious of Radha’s fair complexion. So Lord Krishna painted her face with colour in a joyful mood. As a result of this sweet story people still apply colour on each other’s faces forgetting enemies in past as well, on this special day just love and happiness get spreaded all around the world.
In rural parts of India Holi is known to be celebrated as Basant Utsav. Being one of the biggest festivals in India the fervor and delight can be seen in kids many days before the Holi day they make groups and start applying colors on each other’s faces in their neighborhood. Everyone strives to colour the other person first. Everyone can be seen submerged in love, laughter and gulal. People make kind of small ponds of coloured water and throw each other in that. On this day offering of gunjiyas and other homemade dishes to eat are very common can be seen in almost all homes.
Holi festival songs all around
During Holi temples are lavishly decked. Swings with Radha idols are turned while worshippers sing Holi hymns as they do so. Small plays are now staged that capture the festival’s essence.
The spirit of Holi is strikingly consistent across the nation. This festival of colours is marked by fun, holi songs in all streets, localities. On this day pakora’s and dahi bada are made filled with bhang, also thandai is served to make each others full of happiness. Additionally people use slogan while applying colours “bura na mano Holi hai”.
How Holi is celebrated In Mathura
The celebration of Holi is altogether different in Barsana one of the sacred place of Lord Krishna, a village 42 kilometers away from Mathura and the location of Radha’s birth. In order to play Holi with the Barsana girls and raise their flag over Shri Radhikaji’s temple, men from Nandgaon, the home of Krishna, come to this location. However, the gopies (refers to Radhaji’s friends) greet them with sticks rather than colours. As a result, Holi is now known there in Mathura, Vrindavan, Barsana as Lathmaar Holi.
Men has to play smart role to play this act as they cover themselves fully to avoid the impact of sticks which is served by gopies as a kind of greeting and they can not take revenge that day. It is their effort not to get captured throughout that fight (latthmaar). However, many of them get dragged away and given a good treatment beating with sticks by gopies.
They are also forced to dress up themselves as women and asked to dance in public. Seems so good to be there at this festival of Holi. People from different parts of India and other countries come to see and enjoy the festival fervor and joy there.
The men of Barsana had their chance the following day. In retaliation, they invade Nandgaon and paint the local women with splash, the scene is worth enjoy as this day women of Nandgaon defeat the women of barsana.
Festival of Colours
One of the most celebrated festivals in India is Holi, also refers to as the festival of colors, considered the triumph of good over evil. The festival is celebrated using coloured powder applying on each other faces, filling balloons with coloured water and throwing at each other, using pichkaris filled with coloured water.
The holi will be celebrated on 7th and 8th March 2023, this festival is celebrated for 2 days first day is considered to be the Choti Holi and the second day is called as Dulhendi. On the first day the worship of Lord Hanuman is done in the morning. The log is worshipped by women like diyas are lit and takes round of the log wish for good of their family. In the evening holika dahan takes place in streets/localities. People embrace with each other forgetting any bad memories of past.
Really an awesome day to be in India on this auspicious occasion. People from abroad come here to see and enjoy the days. Click here to book your train.
Holi seems incomplete if we don’t get to hear holi songs so here are few most famous songs played on Holi which make the festive more enjoyable
- Rang barse bheege chunar wali (starrer Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Jaya Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar movie – Silsila, sung by )
- Holi ke din dil khil jaate hai (starrer Dharmendra, Hema Malini movie – Sholay, sung by Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar)
- Aaj na chodenge (starrer : Rajesh Khanna, Asha Parekh movie – Kati Patang, sung by Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar)
- Aaj braj mein holi hai rasiya
- Rang leke khelte gulal leke khelte Radha sang holi nandlal khelte
- Jogi ji dheere dheere (starrer Sachin movie – Nadiya ke paar, sung by Chandrani Mukherjee, Hemlata, Jaspal Singh)
- Saat rang mein khel rahi hai (starrer Rajesh Khanna, Rakesh Roshan, Smita Patil, Tina Munim, movie – Aakhir Kyon, sung by Amit Kumar, Anuradha Paudwal)
- Rang leke deewane aa gaye (starrer Sachin, Sarika, movie – Zid, sung by Asha Bhosle, Jaspal Singh)
- O meri pahle se tang thi choli (starrer Rajesh Khanna, Tina Munim, movie – Souten, sung by Kishore Kumar, Anuradha Paudwal)
- Neela peela hara gulabi (starrer Hema Malini, Prem Nath, movie – Aap Beati, sung by Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Day, Mahendra Kapoor)
- Holi re holi (starrer Hema Malini, Jay Shree, Om Prakash, movie – Paraya Dhan, sung by Manna Day, Asha Bhosle)
- Hori khele Raghuveera (starrer Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Salman Khan, movie – Baghban, sung by Amitabh Bachchan, Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan, Sukhwinder Singh)
- Ang se ang lagana (starrer Sunny Deol, Juhi Chawla, Anupam Kher, Shak Rukh Khan, movie – Darr, sung by Alka Yagnik, Sudesh Bhosle, Devki Pandit, Vinod Rathod)
- Do me a favour lets play holi (starrer Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra, movie – Waqt, sung by Anu Malik, Sunidhi Chauhan)
- Holi aayi re (starrer Anil Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Waheeda Rahman, movie – Mashaal, sung by Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar)
- Jai Jai ShivShankar (starrer Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, movie – War, sung by Vishal Dandlani, Benny Dayal)
- Kamariya hila rahi hai (starrer Pawan Singh, Lauren Gottlieb sung by Pawan Singh, Payal Dev)
- Holi mein rangeele (starrer Mouni Roy, Varun Sharma, sung by Mika Singh, Abhinav Shekhar)
- Balam Pichkari (starrer Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, movie – Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, sung by Vishal Dandlani, Shalmali Kholgade)
- Maro bhar bhar kar phichkari (starrer Rajesh Khanna, Reena Roy)
- Bhagi re bhagi brij bala (starrer Dharmendra, Hema Malini Vinod Khanna Ranjeeta Kaur, movie – Rajput, sung by Asha Bhosle, Dhiraj Kaur, Mahendra Kapoor)
- Zakhmi dilo ka badla chukane audio song on YouTube (starrer Sunil Dutt, Danny Denzongpa)
- Diwani tum jawanon ki (starrer Vinod Khanna, Madhuri Dixit, Aruna Irani, Firoz Khan, movie – Dayavan, sung by Jolly Mukherjee, Sapna Mukherjee, Mohammad Aziz)
- Rang di rang di (starrer Ajay Devgan, Karishma Kapoor, Manisha Koirala, movie – Dhanwaan, sung by Suresh Wadkar, Kavita Krishnamurthy)
- Holiya mein ude re gulal mp3 song sung by Ila Arun
- Jankaro Jankaro (starrer Nana Patekar, Dimple Kapadia, Mamta Kulkarni, movie – Krantiveer, sung by Udit Narayan, Sapna Awasthi)
- Holi khel rahe Bankey Bihari (sung by Govind Krsna Das)
Q and A
Q 1. What is the Holi celebration date in 2023?
A. 7th March 2023 for Holika Dahan and Color play on 8th March 2023.
Q 2. What is the reason for Holika Dahan?
A. Holika (sister of king Hiranyakashyap) had a magical scarf which can stay her alive if she sits in fire and that’s what she tried with devotee Prahlad by taking him in lap sat on fire but God saved his devotee’s life and she got burnt please click the link to watch Holika Dahan.
Q 3. Name the holi celebration played in Barsana?
A. Latthmaar Holi.
Q 4. What message Holi celebration gives to the society?
A. Holi festival is the symbol of love that gives a message to forget all past enmity that day and spread love by embracing each other offering homemade dishes, applying color (symbol of love) on each others’ face and all.
Q 5. Name the country famous for Holi celebration?
A. India but now it is celebrated in other countries with same fervor as in India.
