.............HOLI HAI..............

"HOLI HAI......................"

Khaa key gujiya, pee key bhaang,
laaga k thora thora sa rang,
baaja ke dholak aur mridang,
khele holi hum tere sang. HOLI MUBARAK

Lal, gulabi, neela, pila hathon me liya samet,
Holi ke din rangenge sajni, kar ke meethi bhent.

Gul ne gulshan se gulfam bheja hai,
Sitaro ne aasman se salaam bheja hai,
Mubaraq ho aapko holi ka tyohar,
Humne dil se yeh paigam bheja hai.

If wishes come in rainbow colors then,
I would send the brightest one to say Happy Holi.

Lathmaar Holi
Dulandi Holi
Rangpanchami Basant Utsav
Dol Purnima

The colorful festival of Holi is celebrated on Phalgun Purnima which comes in February end or early March. Holi festival has an ancient origin and celebrates the triumph of 'good' over 'bad'. The colorful festival bridges the social gap and renew sweet relationships. On this day, people hug and wish each other 'Happy Holi'.

History of Holi
Rituals of Holi
Significance of Holi
Tradition of Holi
Holi Celebration

Festival of Colours
Evening of Bonfires
Holi Pooja Process
Holi Calendar
Eco Friendly Holi

Holi celebration begins with lighting up of bonfire on the Holi eve. Numerous legends & stories associated with Holi celebration makes the festival more exuberant and vivid. People rub 'gulal' and 'abeer' on each others' faces and cheer up saying, "bura na maano Holi hai". Holi also gives a wonderful chance to send blessings and love to dear ones wrapped in a special Holi gift...

The Legend of Radha-Krishna

The Legend
Young Krishna is known to be very playful and mischievous. The story goes that as a child, Krishna was extremely jealous of Radha's fair complexion since he himself was very dark.

One day, Krishna complained to his mother Yashoda about the injustice of nature which made Radha so fair and he so dark. To pacify the crying young Krishna, the doting mother asked him to go and colour Radha's face in whichever colour he wanted.
In a mischievous mood, naughty Krishna heeded the advice of mother Yashoda and applied colour on her beloved Radha's face; Making her one like himself.

Well, there is also a legend to explain Krishna's dark complexion. It so happened that once a demon attempted to kill infant Krishna by giving him poisoned milk. Because of which Krishna turned blue. But Krishna did not die and the demon shriveled up into ashes.
The beautiful scene of Krishna's prank in which he played colour with Radha and other gopis has been made alive in myriad forms in a number of paintings and murals.

The Celebrations

Somehow, the lovable prank of Krishna where he applied colour on Radha and other gopis using water jets called pichkaris gained acceptance and popularity. So much so that it evolved as a tradition and later, a full-fledged festival.
Till date, use of colours and pichkaris is rampant in Holi. Lovers long to apply colour on their beloveds face and express their affection for each other.

This legend is wonderfully brought alive each year all over India, particularly in Mathura, Vrindavan, Barsana and Nandgaon-the places associated with Krishna and Radha.
In fact, the entire country gets drenched in the colour waters when it is time for Holi and celebrate the immortal love of Krishna and Radha.

In some states of India, there is also a tradition to place the idols of Radha and Krishna in a decorated palanquin, which is then carried along the main streets of the city. All this while, devotees chant Krishna's name, sing devotional hymns and dance in the name of the lord.

HOLI MASSAGES

Holi tyohar hai Rang aur Bhaang ka
Hum sab yaaron ka
Ghar mein aaye mehmano ka
Gali mein gali walon ka
Mohalle mein mahoul waalo ka
Desh mein deshwalo ka.
Boora naa maano Holi hai Holi hai bhai Holi hai!

Holi man bhedo ko mitane ka saar hai,
Holi dushmano ko gale lagane ka tyohar hai,
Holi naa khele jo manhoos,
Unki jeevan mein haar hai.

Pyar ke rang se bharo pichkari,
sneh ke rang do duniya sari,
ye rang na jane koi jaat na koi boli,
aapko mubarak ho aapno ki holi

Holi Greetings

When love is in the air, you know it is time to celebrate Holi. The festival does not recognizes any bars of caste, class or creed. Drenched in colours, everybody comes to resemble each other losing their original self. This is the beauty of this festival. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that this festival treats everybody at par, all differences dissolve in the coloured water that flows in plenty in it.

Holi Milan
Holi calls to put an end to any hard feelings that might have cropped up during the year. People apply colour and give each other a friends hug as they greet Holi, the tradition is called, 'Holi Milan'. It is strongly believed that even enemies turn friend on the day of Holi.

Holi Milan
Holi calls to put an end to any hard feelings that might have cropped up during the year. People apply colour and give each other a friends hug as they greet Holi, the tradition is called, 'Holi Milan'. It is strongly believed that even enemies turn friend on the day of Holi.

Usually, after a heavy and energetic day of colourful Holi people dress themselves in new clothes and visit friends and relatives with a packet of sweets. This exchange of sweets helps to strengthen and bring joy in relationships. A plate or thali is kept ready in houses with tilak and sweets. People apply tilak, offer sweets and hug each other as they meet the traditional holi and give their best wishes for the festival.

Festivals are the time when people want to be in the company of the people who are close to their hearts.Those at a distant and far off places are greeted with the help of cards and more so through telephone. But greet they must.

Special invitations are extended to the new brides for the festive occasion of Holi. This helps to bring warmth in the relationships and gives a comfortable and joyous opportunity for the new bride to mingle with the new people in her in-laws house. Family of the newly wedded daughter is also invited and special Holi meal is prepared for them.

Holi Meets
'Holi Greeting Meets' or 'Holi Milan Samaroh' are organised by numerous clubs and social organisations. This helps the society to mix with each other and enjoy the festival for usually, songs, dance, competitions and feasts are organised in such get togethers. These meets have gained so much popularity that they usually go on days after Holi. After all, who likes to get out of the spirit of Holi!!
Festival of Colours

HOLI HAI... Come holi and the streets will reverberate with the chants of Holi hai...

Colours will fill the atmosphere as people throw abeer and gulal in the air showing great joy and mirth in the arrival of this Spring Festival.
Holi marks the end of the winter gloom and rejoices in the bloom of the spring time. It is the best time and season to celebrate; Holi provides this opportunity and people take every advantage of it.

Days before Holi, the markets get flooded with the colours of every hues. This aptly sets the mood of the people till the actual day of Holi. It is such a colourful and joyous sight to watch huge piles of bright red, magenta, pink, green and blue every where on the streets. Buying those colours seems as you are bringing joys and colour to your home and into your life.

Children take special delight in the festival and demand every colour in loads. They have so many plans in their mind. They have to be the first to apply colour to Mama, Papa, siblings and a big bunch of friends in their colony. Nobody could miss being coloured by them and of course, they need colour for that.

These days it is easy to buy colours from the market but still some people do take up the task of making colours at home, usually from flowers of tesu and palash. These home made colours, have a special fragrance of love in them.

The other option is to buy gulal which comes in bright shades of pink, magenta, red, yellow and green. 'Abeer' is made of small crystals or paper like chips of mica. This is mixed with the gulal for a rich shine. Mischievous ones, however, go for silver and gold paints on which no colour could be applied.

Whatever be the choice of colour, nobody remains in their original texture at the end of the play. And everybody takes delight looking at the other. Really, the other name of the festival is FUN.

And, it is not just children, but the young and the old alike who take delight in this joyous festival of colours. Seniors too, move in their tolis. Their enthusiasm is at times greater than that of their children as they forget the bars of age and follow their hearts. To youth, holi gives a chance to explore the heights of their enthusiasm as they climb the human pyramids to break the pot of buttermilk and to express their love to their beloved by applying colour.

For, Holi knows no bars, everybody feels it is their right to enjoy and enjoy they do. Songs, dance, drinks, food everything goes in excess when it is time for Holi. It can be said, "Life turns Colourful" when it is time for Holi.

"HAPPY HOLI TO ALL"

Holi Essay

Colours, gujiyas and fun...I love Holi so much
Holi happens to be my favourite festival. I particularly enjoy the colour part of it. I keep stocks of every colour but red happens to be my favourite. The other ones specially, the purple is one I hate to use on Holi. It never goes and makes one look so bad.

I also enjoy preparing gujiyas with my mother and sisters. My mother keep frying them in the pan, while we sisters do the rolling, cutting and filling part of it. My favourite job is to do the filling which gives me a chance to keep stealing the tasty khoya which is full of dry fruits. Eating the gujiyas - piping hot just as they come out of pan is the other most cherished moment of the festival.

I also take care to keep my preparation for the festival ready. Like choose some old and faded jeans and a shirt I am bored off besides taking care of the oiling and creaming part of it. Otherwise, the aftermath of the Holi festival could be extremely tiresome.

I have also had a bad experience after Holi once when I got so much engrossed in playing with the colour that I became to late to get a bath and the water tank got exhausted. I had to wait for hours drenched in the water before the water supply was restored. It was a very painful lesson that I learnt - take a bath on time.

I particularly enjoy the festival in the company of friends and relatives, i.e. when there are lot of people to be coloured. The excitement is unmatched when everybody loves the festival as much as you do.

A memorable HoliOh what fun we had on the Holi that year. The tradition followed was digging the lawn generating some mud, throwing some buckets of water and then the prey. So, it was a very earthy kind of Holi that we played that year in the hostel. The good part was that the prey was asked get the buckets herself.

Then everybody decided that we have grown up enough to have our first doze of bhang. A thandai was prepared, somebody had stored a little milk from the morning breakfast. There was one very enthusiastic girl who sneaked in the maximum share. High on the spirit of the festival we had the mandatory dance on the Rang Barse bheege chunar wali....

Meanwhile, one who stole maximum share, sat under the sun and started waiting for the bhang to give her some kick. She kept cribbing for about half an hour..nothing is happening..nothing is happening...

After some time she suddenly started laughing and did not stopped even after repeated attempts to stop her from doing so. Her body started aching but she could not control her laughter. Then all of a sudden she started crying and then again could not stop... She got the kind of high she never expected.

Although I can't remember her name, I can't forget what fun we had at her expense. I owe a big thank you to her for making that Holi so memorable in my life.

Holi-The festival of love and joy
Holi is a festival of colours which generally falls on a full moon in March.. It is also a festival of love and unity and celebrates the triumph of good over evil. The festival is celebrated with lot of pomp in north India.

Holi is celebrated with vibrant colours - these colour are actually colours of joy, colours of love and colours that fill our life with happiness to the core of our hearts. It adorns each life with its various hues.

There are many legends given as the reasons for celebrating holi. Long ago there was a king named Hiranyakashyapu, he had a son, Prahlad - a holy spirit and highly devoted to God. But Prahlad's devotion enraged Hiranyakashyapu and he planned to kill his own son. He asked her sister Holika, who was immune to fire, to sit in fire taking Prahlad in her lap. Fortunately Prahlad, who was blessed by Lord, was saved and Holika was burnt to ashes. This gave birth to the festival of holi.

Another legend speaks of the everlasting love between Radha and Krishna. The legend is celebrated with great pomp and show.

All hearts are lighted with glory and people everywhere enjoy with their near and dear ones with different colours. People also throw water balloons on each other and on passer-by too. Many are also drenched in coloured water. Hours pass by throwing colours on each other and it seems as if it's just the start of the day.

It's a festival of gaiety but then there are few who make this festival, a festival of evil. They do this by infuriating the strangers by forcefully throwing colours on them; some use colours that are difficult to remove and unsafe for skin and health. Many take it as a day of drinking alcohol but we should not forget that Holi is a festival of triumph of good over evil. We must try to wash away all the evils in our hearts along with the colours and allow the colour of love to stay there forever and ever. This is the true spirit of Holi.