Holi
or Basanta Utsav is a most popular festival in India. It is called as “festival
of Spring” as it celebrate in spring season. In this festival people like
friends, families put color on each other face and drenched each other with the
color that’s what it is called “festival of color”. The festival signifies the
arrival of spring, the end of winter, the blossoming of love and for many a
festive day to meet others, play and laugh, forget and forgive, and repair
broken relationships. The vibrancy of colors is something that brings in a lot of
positivity in our lives and Holi being the festival of colors. Holi is a famous
Hindu festival that is celebrated in every part of India with utmost joy and
enthusiasm. Not only in India nowadays we can find the celebration of Holi
festival in other countries as well, like US, Europe, Singapore and many more
countries.
Holi lasts for a night and a day, starting on
the evening of the Purnima (Full Moon day) falling in the month of Phalgun
(Bengali Calender month), which falls somewhere between the end of February and
the middle of March. Holi celebrations start on the night before Holi with a
Holika Dahan where people gather, perform religious rituals in front of the
bonfire, and pray that their internal evil be destroyed the way Holika, the
sister of the demon king Hiranyakashipu, was killed in the fire. The next
morning is celebrated Holi - a festival of colors. People celebrate Holi
festival like a game. People play with colors on street, park, open area,
outside of temple. Music, singing, dance are some basic ingredients of Holi.
People use to drink “Bhang” and “Thandai” during
the festival. Bhang is an edible preparation of cannabis and Thandai is also a
drink it can come with Bhang or without Bhang. Both preparation are prepare
with milk, almonds, cashew nuts, saffron, sugar and rose petals etc.
Celebration of Holi in India is awesome but outside of India is something different.
I got a chance to celebrate Holi in California, US.
BayBasi has organized the Holi festival in foster city, California on a ground with music, foods and drinks. In a morning we were gathered on a ground with known and unknown faces to play the game of color.
We
were there for almost 3-4 hours and enjoyed a lot.
