28/03/2021
Holi : Indians around the world would vouch for the fact that while there are many festivals that they celebrate with fervour, it is the festival of colours or Holi that they most look forward to every year, for it is a celebration like no other, and one that brings people of different communities together to eat, dance, throw colours and make merry.
Besides the riot of colours, the day also celebrates the season of spring and the feeling of love. It is a day when people forgive mistakes of the past and start anew. On the pious occasion, it is said that love blossoms when people smear colours on each other and mend broken relationships.
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It begins on the night of Holika Dahan — a day prior to Holi — wherein the evil king Hiranyakashipu’s sister Holika was charred to death when she had sat with the young Prahlad on a pyre. The latter, devoted to Lord Vishnu, was saved from the fire by His mercy, but Holika had been engulfed. Later, the reign of Hiranyakashipu, too, was brought to an end, when he was killed at the claws of Lord Narasimha, an avatar of Lord Vishnu.
As such, Holi — just like many other Hindu festivals — celebrates the victory of good over evil.
Another legend associated with the festival is that of Lord Krishna — another avatar of Lord Vishnu — and his consort Radha. In the Braj region of India — where Krishna is believed to have grown up — the festival is celebrated until Rang Panchmi, in commemoration of the divine love between Radha and Krishna. While Krishna, a dark-skinned lad once playfully complained to his mother about his complexion, she told him that Radha would like him as he is, and that he can even ask her to paint his face and hers in any colour of her choice. While Radha agreed to this, the colour that was on her face, reflected on his and vice-versa. Thus, this was the occasion wherein RadhaKrishna became one, and came to be understood as a part of one another
