For India, the season of spring brings great joy. The winter has withered away, and the air has just become sweetly warm. There is still a month's time before the sun will regain all its strength, start travelling a longer path in the sky and will scorch everything within its reach. Then, will start the waiting for the monsoons. But this time of the year is the spring. And India being the land of festivals, we have an appropriate fectival for the spring. In fact, there are many festivals celebrating spring in India, yet my most favourite is the Holi. I love it for its colour, its vibrancy and its joyfulness(and of course, the holidays). The whole family makes it a point to get together to celebrate the colourful festival of Holi.

Well, a festival like Holi should not need any reason. It should be celebrated just like that, for the sheer joy, colours, the fun and festivities it brings with it. But as it happens with every festival in India, there is a legend, a story behind Holi. In a different time and era, may be hundreds of thousands of years ago, there was this demon, named Hiranyakashyap, who ruled a kingdom with an iron hand. Being a demon, H loved to play the devil upon his own people. Frankly, the people were fed up of him, and wanted to get rid of him. So, they prayed, and Lord Vishnu himself assured the people that he will somehow kill the demon.

As it happened, H had a son, Prahlad, who was the antithesis of everything that H stood for. Prahlad was a devotee of God, in the form of Lord Vishnu himself. H was evil incarnate, Prahlad was good. So, in the meantime, H plotted to get Prahlad killed, and sent a she-demon, named Holika, to kill Prahlad. Now, this Holika had a plan. She had a gift: the fire could not burn her. She somehow convinces Prahlad (who was but a kid at that time) to come with her, and sit on a really large pyre that she had prepared beforehand.

But if Holika had the gift, Prahlad had the god on his side. H is surprised by what happens next. Holika, the one with the gift of immunity from fire, is burnt to ashes. Prahlad comes out unscathed from all this ordeal. The people are of course, relieved and very happy. The very next day, they meet and greet each other in a very novel way: they colour each other with colours made of flowers, vegetables and dyes. It is all great fun, so they decide to celebrate this day as the mark of victory of good over evil, and thus, Holi was celebrated ever after.

Holi is celebrated with great fanfare in most of the North India, some parts of Nepal and in some countries like Mauritius where the Indian diaspora is based. Holi is actually celebrated over two days. It usually falls in the month of February or March. On the full moon day in the month of Phalgun (as per Hindu calendar), a huge pyre wooden pyre is built. The preparations for the pyre burning begin almost a month in advance, from the day that marks the advent of Spring (or Basant, as it is called in Hindi). People, especially kids keep adding to this pyre. Anything that burns will do - dried wood, leaves, anything. On the Holi day, people also bring with them a small amount of garbage/refuse fron their homes, at add it to the pile. Then, in the night, the pyre is burnt. People go around the fire, as they wait patiently for the fire to burn down, and then they gather a fisful of ashes to keep in their homes as a sign of good luck.

The next day is called the Dhulendi, and this is the day that the real fun begins. People meet each other, embrace each other and then apply Abir and Gulal (dried coloured powder) on each other's face. Obviously, it is the kids who have a whale of time amidst all these celebrations and colour throwing. People gather together in great groups, and apply colour and share delicacies with each other. Then they visit all the houses in the neighbourhood. There, they meet and greet everybody, to seek their blessings.

The colour throwing and meeting continues till late afternoon, after which everyone leaves for their respective homes. Now comes the rather hard part of Holi. You may have guessed it by now! Yes, you have to get rid of all the colours and paint all over your body! That means long bathing sessions, and a lot of soap and shampoo.

After some rest, comes the evening time. People put on their best clothes (usually, new clothes are bought for this purpose) and visit friends and relatives. While visiting each other, they share the Holi specialities, Ghujia and Thandai with each other. This continues till late in the night, and for some days after that too.

One cannot talk about Holi without mentioning the sumptuous delicacies that are Holi specialities. So, here are a few of them (I am rather at a loss in case of recipes, but I will try my best to describe these delicacies. Please excuse me if I could not explain it clearly):

* Gujhia: Gujhia is synonymous with Holi. I mean, just say "Gujhia", and the next person will understand that you are talking about Holi! It is equivalent to, say, a Christmas Cake, or a Thanksgiving Turkey. It is made of flour and milkcake. The milkcake is filled inside the flour dumplings, and deep fried.

* Thandai: It is cool drink, made of dry fruits and milk. It can be consumed plain, or Bhang (Cannabis) can be added for added effect! I once consumed a Bhang laced Thandai, and was intoxicated for hours later. Of course, I am not going to embarass myself with all the sordid details of what happened afterwards!

* Dahi Vada: Dahi means curd, and Vada means a small, deep fried dumpling. Thus, Dahi Vada is prepared by immersing the vadas in pureed, sweetened curd. It is taken with a bit of salt and pepper sprinkled on it.

* Jaljeera: Again, a cool drink, prepared by adding roasted and finely ground Cumin to sugar and water, This is taken without adding Bhang to it.

In fact, there are many more delicacies and preparations which are an integral part of Holi celebrations. But as I mentioned earlier, I am rather ill-equipped to explaine the recipes. Nevertheless, I will provide a link below to some recipes. May be, someone can write a hub about some Holi delicacies. I will gladly link to it.

Click Here for Holi Recipes

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