Holi is celebrated on the day of Fagu Purnima according to Nepali Calendar, a festival of love and is also known as the festival of colors. It’s celebrated to signify the victory of love against hatred. Holi has its significance and has a huge story behind it. In Bhagavata Purana, you will get to know how and why Holi is celebrated. Holi is mainly celebrated to enjoy the win of Lord Vishnu over Hiranyakashipu and demon Holika. Once upon a time, there was a demon Hiranyakashipu whose son, the Prahlada, was a Vishnu devotee. As he was a demon, he couldn’t bear his son being a devotee of Lord Vishnu. He tried many attemps to stop Praladh from worshiping Vishnu but he couldn’t. He asked his sister Holika to take Praladh in his lap and sit on the fire as Holika was blessed with a boon that she won’t be killed by fire. Then his aunt took him and sat on fire but Praladh was still chanting the prayers of Lord Vishnu and then magic happened Praladh was completely fine but Holika was burned in that fire.
This is the reason why people burn Holika a day before Holi. Its also known as Dhuleti. The ladies of the house take cow dung and make some shapes out of it which is done for some days and on the last day of making those shapes Holika is also made. It is knotted in one rope and kept for burning. Then on the day of Dhuleti in different places fireplaces are made all people go there and throw their garland of cow dung and that signifies the death of evil. Another day of Dhuleti is Holi. All the people gather together and play with beautiful colors for the whole day. At first in the morning we need to worship till then we cant touch colors after the prayers end then all of us gather and throw color on each other and enjoy. On Holi different types of foods are made in our house. Whoever comes to the house is served with a plate full of dishes. For playing with colors we also have one more story that is of Radha Krishna. Krishna was dark-toned and he used to like Radha who was fair. He was insecure that she would never accept him but his mother said once try approaching her. And on that day he went to Radha and asked her to color him in any color she wants and then they played a lot with colors. Hence that’s why it’s called the festival of love.
-Article written by: Sakshi Agrawal for Land Nepal
