Holi Festival - Colorful festival of India
India is full of festivals. No sooner a festival gets over, next one comes up. We celebrate many festivals through out the year. One of them , the most prominent , is Holi.
There is a very famous Bollywood song, for the Holi festival, that suites the celebration aptly. It goes this way:
This is quite true, in other sense too. Since all are colored up with different colors, no one recognizes each-other, and hence many a times, enemies come and hug each other, like friends.
That is the real essence of Holi !!
Sweets and Colors together constitute a combo celebration. Different types of sweets are made specially for this occasion. Different cultures and traditions throughout India have different sweets to offer.
In Maharashtra "puran-poli" is very famous sweet had during holi.
In Sindhi's its "Gheear" [This is a sindhi word - two words embedded with each other - Ghee + Shakar = Gheear. So this sweet is prepared during this festival .
In Punjabis its Jilebees. In Bihar and Jharkhand its Malpuva.
In South of India the sweet delicacy is Mawa-Gujiya
And yes, to top it all of this, is the most important drink, called Thandaee. This is the sweet drink prepared from milk and sugar, along with many ingredients like ilachi, adrak and other spices if required.
This is famous among the young crowd who play holi for 5 - 6 hours, and then to get refreshed , they drink glass full of thandai.
There is another flavour to this Thandaee , called Bhang.
Bhang: This is a indian style, very ancient type of alcohol, prepared from the specific shrubs called Bhang. This gives the instant kick to a person who drinks it and its said that once you drink it, you will remain in that state for a lot of time, till that hang over is gone.
So be careful next time you drink Bhang :)
There are many colors with which we play holi. Holi is also played with water. We mix the powdered colors in water and put that water to our friends. We need to first give greetings to whom we have to color, saying "Bura Mat Mano, Holi Hai" - Dont mind, its Holi" and then you color him. The wishes are exchanged from both sides, and the another person also puts the color. Then begins the fun when different colors mixed with water are poured.
Some people , mostly rude young crowd, they get the most persistent and stubborn colors, like Grease and dark black which are difficult to clean from the skin. We need to beware our selves from that. Also some people play with eggs, which is bad. You again need to take care of this.
A day before playing Holi, we celebrate Hola-mala. This is the festival where we lit a camp-fire during the night and worship God Fire and get blessings.
There is a mythological story behind this. It goes this way:
A demon king called Hiranyakashyap won over the kingdom of earth. Due to his ego, he ordered everyone to worship only him. His son, Prahlad, was a devotee of Lord Narayana and refused to worship his father.
Hiranyakashyap tried to kill his son many times but he was saved every time by Lord Vishnu. Finally he told his sister Holika, to enter a blazing fire with Prahlad in her lap. Holika had a boon that fire cant burn her.
Holika did that and she had to give her life for this behaviour. Prahlad kept chanting lord Narayana and he was saved.
Thus Holi is derived from the name Holika, and is celebrated as a festival of victory of good over evil.
India is full of festivals. No sooner a festival gets over, next one comes up. We celebrate many festivals through out the year. One of them , the most prominent , is Holi.
There is a very famous Bollywood song, for the Holi festival, that suites the celebration aptly. It goes this way:
"Holi ke din dil khil jaate hai rangon mein rang mil jaate hai,
Gile shikve bhool ke dostoon, dushman bhi gale mil jaate hai"
In English if i translate this it says:
"On the day of Holi, look, every heart blossoms with joy,
and the VIBGYOR colors all, get mixed up with each other.
Forgetting all the grievances, and disagreements of any sort
All the friends and enemies, come and hug each other"
This is quite true, in other sense too. Since all are colored up with different colors, no one recognizes each-other, and hence many a times, enemies come and hug each other, like friends.That is the real essence of Holi !!
Sweets and Colors together constitute a combo celebration. Different types of sweets are made specially for this occasion. Different cultures and traditions throughout India have different sweets to offer.
In Maharashtra "puran-poli" is very famous sweet had during holi.
In Sindhi's its "Gheear" [This is a sindhi word - two words embedded with each other - Ghee + Shakar = Gheear. So this sweet is prepared during this festival .
In Punjabis its Jilebees. In Bihar and Jharkhand its Malpuva.In South of India the sweet delicacy is Mawa-GujiyaAnd yes, to top it all of this, is the most important drink, called Thandaee. This is the sweet drink prepared from milk and sugar, along with many ingredients like ilachi, adrak and other spices if required.
This is famous among the young crowd who play holi for 5 - 6 hours, and then to get refreshed , they drink glass full of thandai.There is another flavour to this Thandaee , called Bhang.
Bhang: This is a indian style, very ancient type of alcohol, prepared from the specific shrubs called Bhang. This gives the instant kick to a person who drinks it and its said that once you drink it, you will remain in that state for a lot of time, till that hang over is gone.
So be careful next time you drink Bhang :)
There are many colors with which we play holi. Holi is also played with water. We mix the powdered colors in water and put that water to our friends. We need to first give greetings to whom we have to color, saying "Bura Mat Mano, Holi Hai" - Dont mind, its Holi" and then you color him. The wishes are exchanged from both sides, and the another person also puts the color. Then begins the fun when different colors mixed with water are poured.
Some people , mostly rude young crowd, they get the most persistent and stubborn colors, like Grease and dark black which are difficult to clean from the skin. We need to beware our selves from that. Also some people play with eggs, which is bad. You again need to take care of this.
A day before playing Holi, we celebrate Hola-mala. This is the festival where we lit a camp-fire during the night and worship God Fire and get blessings.
There is a mythological story behind this. It goes this way:
A demon king called Hiranyakashyap won over the kingdom of earth. Due to his ego, he ordered everyone to worship only him. His son, Prahlad, was a devotee of Lord Narayana and refused to worship his father.
Hiranyakashyap tried to kill his son many times but he was saved every time by Lord Vishnu. Finally he told his sister Holika, to enter a blazing fire with Prahlad in her lap. Holika had a boon that fire cant burn her.
Holika did that and she had to give her life for this behaviour. Prahlad kept chanting lord Narayana and he was saved.
Thus Holi is derived from the name Holika, and is celebrated as a festival of victory of good over evil.
