Hello people,
Today I am very happy to show you a gist of the festival of colours "HOLI". Holi is the festival of colours. Also a day before the actual celebrations with colour, a ritual known as Holika dahanis performed in the remembrance of a story of a devotee of lord Vishnu. The story shows the victory of the good over evil.
In the old age, according to hindu mythology it is believed that gods were able to provide special powers to anyone who prays with whole heart. Just like other demons with bad intentions there was a king called Hiranakashyap, who to fulfil his dreams performed different types of pray, tapas and was granted with a boon of being immortal. The boon gave Hiranyakashyap five special powers:
- He could be killed by neither a human being nor an animal.
- Neither indoors nor outdoors.
- Neither at day nor at night.
- Neither by astra (projectile weapons) nor by any shastra (handheld weapons).
- Neither on land nor in water or air.
Due to these super powers, Hiranakashyap thought he was immortal and punished everyone who did not obey his orders which actually made him arrogant and lead him to a path of not worshipping the god who granted him the wish. His Son Prahalad on the other hand disagreed with him and used to worship lord Vishnu. Prahalad's devotion toward lord made hiranakashyap angry.
Observing son's devotion towards lord vishnu he ordered multiple attempts to kill his own son but failed. Out of which, once Hiranakashyap calls his sister, Holika who was granted with the wish of being unharmed with fire. He then asked his sister to take a seat on bon-fire and make Prahlad sit on her lap, thinking that he will die. Instead because of lord Vishnu's blessings the special garment that prevented holika from fire blown away into air and got wrapped around Prahlad and Holika died in the fire.
Since then Holika Dahan is done in the thought of the victory over evil.
The next day everyone celebrates holi with exquisite colours and apply colour on family members and friends. It is also played with water - balloons. Adults visit their relatives and friends with herbal colour known as Gulaal. The festival is played almost in every part of India and people celebrate with enthusiasm and zeal. Now, let me show you some pictures how we celebrated.
