Holi - Indian festival of colours
Origins and traditions
Celebrated at the end of winter, on the last full moon day of the Hindu luni-solar calendar month, Holi is a perfect excuse to throw some colourful powder at each other, be joyful for the beginning of spring and remember one of the most sacred and ancient traditions that is so much loved not only in India, but in some other parts of the world. Let's learn a bit more about this bright festival today and see why and how it is celebrated all over India!
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Even if you’re new to Indian culture or else don’t know much about it, you are sure to have at least seen or heard of this colourful and bright festival called Holi. In fact, this ancient tradition of Hindus has different names - Festival of Colours, Festival of Spring or Festival of Love. Whatever the name you give it, the meaning of Holi remains the same: it is a playful way to celebrate the end of winter and the beginning of spring in India; to forgive and ask for forgiveness; to renew broken relationships; to gather with all family members and spend a good time all together. However, the meaning and reasons of its foundation have been changing from century to century, since Holi has its roots in ancient times… 
After several failed attempts to kill his son, the king Hiranyakashipu made his sister Holika help him do that. Holika took Prahlad and set with him in a bonfire, thinking nothing would happen to her thanks to her special boon - no fire was able to destroy her. However, the opposite happened - burned to ashes Holika died and Prahlad, saved by god Vishnu, survived. Hiranyakashipu is believed to be slayed later by Vishnu…
It was when Sati made a decision to be reborn as Goddess Parvati, win Lord Shiva’s heart and wake him up from his trance. It wasn’t that easy, though. And when Parvati got tired of trying, she asked Kamadeva, cupid 's prototype,  for help. Kamadeva shooted his love-arrow on Shiva’s heart which instantly woke him up. Because of being interrupted, Shiva opened his third eye and burned Kamadeva to ashes. This is said to have happened on Holi, the day when Kamadeva sacrificed himself for the good of the world. The end of the story, though, was happy: it didn’t take Shiva long to fall in love with Parvati and marry her. He later was persuaded by her to revive Kamadeva, who is thought to be granted immortality by Shiva. 
Now, on Holi, the idols of Kamadeva are offered mango blossoms, which he reputedly loves, and people put sandalwood paste on Kamadeva idol foreheads on Holi to ease the burns he suffered.
His mother Yashoda decided to help her son, advising him to colour the skin of Radha in any colour he wanted and so he did. After being playfully painted by Krishna, Radha fell in love with him too.
In fact, there are different varieties of this legend. Some say that Krishna, being a naughty and mischievous child, liked to play pranks on people - one of them was colouring Radha’s and other girls’ faces into different colours. Others claim that Krishna was jealous of Radha’s beautiful fair skin and decided to play a prank on her painting her face dark and his was.
Some claim that the celebration of Holi existed even before Christ, which makes it almost impossible to get to the truth of its origin. Nevertheless, there are several legends, each of which plays a big role in Holi and provides an explanation of the origin of this holiday. Let's take a look at some of them!
Nowadays, people throw coloured powders at each other’s faces to commemorate the love story of Krishna and Radha, imitating Krishna's painting of Radha's skin.
The Legend of Krishna and Radha — the  Colour Fights Story
This legend will explain the beautiful and playful tradition of throwing colourful dry powder and each other, which is associated with Holi in the first place!
Krishna, always depicted as a handsome blue-skinned god, got such a skin colour in his childhood after drinking a poisoned milk by a devil, which, instead of killing Krishna, made him blue-skinned. The legend says that Krishna, being desperately in love with a fair-skinned Radha, didn’t know how to catch her attention and make her fall in love with him too.
The Holika Dahan Legend (Burning of Holika)
This legend, considered to be one of the most well-known and popular legends in India, is connected to the festival like no other - the word Holi is derived from the name Holika. The legend has it that there was a king Hiranyakashipu who was gifted five magical powers that made him think of himself as a god and he ordered everyone to worship him. So everyone did... except for his son Prahlad, who refused to obey his father and promised to stay loyal to god Vishnu.
SIGNIFICANCE AND RITUALS
This is how the tradition of the Holika Dahanam, Burning of Holika, or The Holika Bonfire appeared. The Holika bonfire takes place the day before the Holi Festival, occurring on the last full moon day before the spring equinox, signifying the celebration of the symbolic victory of good over evil, of Prahlada over Hiranyakashipu, and of the fire that burned Holika.
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The legend of Kamadeva
The tradition of worshipping the god of love Kamadeva occurs predominantly in southern India and suggests a story of how the goddess Sati married Lord Shiva against her father’s wish. After realising her fault, Sati entered the fire and died… On receiving such news, Lord Shiva became furious and decided to soothe his sadness and mourning by meditation, which dragged on for a long time and didn’t let Shiva do his duties - solve the world’s issues. Therefore, the world began to fall out of control.
DIFFERENT CELEBRATIONS

India is a really diverse country in which every region not only celebrates Holi in its own way, but also gives the festival different names! 

It’s called Lathmar Holi (Holi of sticks) in the towns of Barsana and Nandgaon, which are known as the birthplaces of Radha and Krishna respectively. Following the legend of how Krishna and his friends entered Barsana and being playfully greeted with the sticks by Radha and her friends, nowadays men of Nandgaon go to Barsana and are greeted by women with colours and sticks every year when Holi takes place. The celebration is said to last almost for a week in this area!
There’s also such a thing as Hola Mohalla in Punjab. It is a Sikh festival that lasts for three days and usually coincides with Holi taking place a day after it. Traditional parts of Hola Mohalla include exhibitions of martial arts, music, poetry and special meals that are an essential part of the Sikh culture.

FOOD 

Food is undoubtedly one of the most important parts of Holi, like any other festival. Indian food can really boast of its colourful and nutritious meals that can be found almost on every corner on Holi sold by street vendors. Papri chaat (traditional fast food including peas, boiled potatoes and yoghurt topped with Indian species), gujiyas (sweet dumplings stuffed with dried fruits), and samosas (tasty pastries filled with potatoes, onion and peas) are among many other ones. When it comes to drinks, thandai, a cold drink made of milk, almonds, sugar, saffron and other ingredients, is one of the most popular ones and famous especially on Holi.

Despite having an Indian origin and being celebrated predominantly in India and Nepal, Holi has recently become a festival that is recognized almost all around the world. Its colours, joy, tasty food, music, legends and traditions attract a lot of people and you must be one of them ;) I totally share this with you! Hope this blog post was interesting to read and you discovered something new! If it's so, don't forget to share it with your friends on social media and join LanguageEasy free newsletter to get notified about new blog posts and videos.
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