The Grand Celebration of Holi in India and Its Benefits in Indian Market

Holi – the divine festival of color is celebrated through out India with great zeal and spirit. It is a very ancient festival in India and originally is named as Holika. Holi is a also a very famous festival outside of India and The latest and modern legend regarding the celebration of Holi is related with Lord Krishna and the two places Mathura and Vrindabana. The essence of Holi has come up from Lord Krishna’s legend of courting of Radha and playing planks with the other Gopis. It is generally held on at the end of winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month Falguna. The main characteristic of Holi is playing with color powder with each other. That is why this festival is also known as the festival of color. In West Bengal and in Orissa it is also known as Dolyatra or Basanta Uthsava. Holi is a festival of two days where people from children to aged person everyone participate with lots of joy and the social rigidity losses its rigidness on this very festival and this festival brings all together with love and happiness. It is mainly celebrated at Braj places known as Braj Dham such as Mathuras, Vrindavana, Nandgaon and Barsana.

It is said that this festival has its origin before Christ era and from then the legendry stories of the beginning of its celebration have been changed on in accordance with the following time. But the present and popular mythological story behind this celebration is laid on the story of the demon king Hiranyakashipu and his son Prahlad. According to this story it is said that Hiranyakashipu was a demon king who was blessed by Lord Brahma to be dead neither on earth nor in the sky, neither at day nor at night, and neither inside home nor outside, neither by a man nor by an animal and neither by astra nor by shastra by his long penance and strict prayer for long years. And after having this boon he became an ambitious ruler who wanted to get absolute power and to be worshiped by the people of earth. But he had a very young son named Prahlad who was a devoted priest of Lord Vishnu; despite of his father’s order Prahlad became disobedient to his father and continued his prayer to Lord Vishnu. Here his father became angry and wanted to kill his son. So to give an end of his wish he wanted a favor from his sister Holika who has immune power from fire due to a boon. They planed Prahlad will be burn in fire. So a pyre was lit up and Holika sat on it clutching Prahlad. But amazingly Prahlad remained unscratched in the fire and Holika was burned to ashes. The divine devotion and complete submission to Lord Visnhu saved young Prahlad. And the burning of Holika is celebrated as Holi. And later the Hiranyakashipu even killed by Vishnu where Lord had taken the form of Narashima (who is half man and half lion).

But there is another one story related with the celebration of this festival that is based on Lord Krishna. He is known as a romantic lover of Rahika and during the spring season, the season of love, he played holi with his beloved Radha and with other gopis. It is said that he complained to his mother about his dark complexion and Radha’s fair complexion and so his mother decided to apply color on Radha’s face and from there this festival started celebrating.

One more story is there behind the celebration of the festival of color that is related to Kamadeva, a God of love. Once Kamadeva shot his weapon to Lord Shiva to disrupt his meditation to helped Parvati to get married with Lord Shiva but in anger Lord Shiva opened his third eye and burned Kamadeva with the gaze which was so powerful. But for the sake of Rati, the wife of Kamadeva Lord Shiva restored life in Kamadeva’s body but only as a mental image which represents actual mental, emotional and spiritual state of love rather the physical lust and the celebration of Holi is related to the commemoration of this event.

Now at this present era whole India takes part in celebrating this festival with great joy and enthusiasm. People burn woods and leaves and this signifies the triumph of good over evil. And people then start playing holi by spreading color over each other and the whole atmosphere gets a new look and spreads the flavor of happiness and love everywhere. It brings people closer and looses the strictness of society. People wish each other with sweets and snacks. Decorate their home with garlands, ghata, makes various designs on the floor known as alpana. During this time the shop owners loaded theirs hops with various colors, in West Bengal some students and teachers of a famous university has made a herbal color product while they give assurance that it is harmless and no side effect can be raise by using this herbal color and they has got a huge success by making this product. Sellers collect various types of Pichkaris (an instrument in which people pour color water and push its back handles to give a shower of water to others.) they also collect various decorating items at a very reasonable price. And get profits during this event and it is a fact that shop keepers always wait for these type of events to raise their income and get profit where their family depends on this income. And in this internet generation people also send beautiful Holi Scraps to their friends to share happiness and at this present time people also wish people by sending cool Holi SMS to their relatives, friends and beloved ones. And the whole country celebrates this event in a grand way.

Actually the celebration of this festival is massage to all that evil cannot win over good. And also spread the moral message where a person pray to a god with his full devotion and commitment, God is always there to save him from all worries and troubles. This also gives a lesson to live life peacefully and by loving others.