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 Date : Full Moon Day of
Phaalguna.
Holi is celebrated on the day after the full moon
in early March every year.
This is
pre-eminently the spring festival of Bharat. The trees are smiling
with their sprout of tender leaves and blooming flowers. With the
harvest having been completed and the winter also just ended, it is
pre-eminently a festival of mirth and merriment. Gulal
(colored powder) is sprinkled on each other by elders and children,
men and women, rich and poor alike. All superficial social barriers
are pulled down by the all-round gaiety and
laughter.
The day
itself is associated with many interesting and enlightening
Puraanic legends. It is the day of Kaamadahana, the
burning of god Kaama - Cupid. The virgin daughter of the king
of Himaalayas, Paarvati, was in deep penance to acquire the
hand of Lord Shiva as her spouse. But Shiva himself was lost in a
deep trance entirely oblivious of the outside world. Kaamadeva came
to the rescue of Paarvati and shot his amorous arrows of love at
Shiva. Shiva, disturbed from his trance, opened his terrible Third
Eye. The flames of Shiva's wrath, leaping from his fore-head eye,
burnt Kaama to ashes and there after, Kaama became spirit without a
form. Shiva then looked towards Paarvati and fructified her penance
by marrying her. It is this burning of lustful infatuation by
penance that is signified in this festival.
Holi
is also associated with the story of Holika, the sister of demon
Hiranyakashipu. The demon-father, having failed in various other
ways to make his son Prahlaada denounce Lord Naaraayana, finally
asked his sister Holika to take Prahlaada in her lap and enter a
blazing fire. Holika, who had a boon to remain unscathed by fire,
did her brother's bidding. But lo, Holika's boon ended by this act
of supreme sin against the Lord's devotee and was herself burnt to
ashes and Prahlaada came out unharmed.
One more
legend pertains to another Holika, also known as Pootana, who
came as a charming woman to kill the infant Sri Krishna by feeding
him with her poisoned breast. Sri Krishna, however, sucked by blood
and she lay dead in all her hideous form.
Such
stories have effectively charged the popular mind with the faith
that ultimately the forces of divinity shall triumph over the
demonic forces. Symbolically, a bonfire of Kaamadeva or Holika is
made in every town or village, attended by unbounded fun and frolic.
Games depicting the pranks of infant Krishna are also played by boys
singing and dancing around the fire.
As in the
case of all our festivals, this too has its plentiful share of
spiritual significance. Fire is the symbol of yajna in which
all our bodily desires and propensities are offered in the pure and
blazing flame of spiritual enlightenment lit within our hearts.
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