NASGJ ART GALLERY

Holi is a popular and significant Hindu festival celebrated as the Festival of Colours, Love and Spring. It celebrates the eternal and divine love of the god Radha and Krishna. Additionally, the day also signifies the triumph of good over evil, as it commemorates the victory of Vishnu as Narasimha Narayana over Hiranyakashipu. Holi is originated and is predominantly celebrated in the Indian subcontinent but has also spread to other regions of Asia and parts of the Western world through the Indian diaspora.

 

Holi also celebrates the arrival of Spring in India, the end of winter, and the blossoming of love. It is also an invocation for a good spring harvest season. It lasts for a night and a day, starting on the evening of the Purnima (Full Moon Day) falling in the Hindu calendar month of Phalguna, which falls around the middle of March in the Gregorian calendar.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

​

 

 

 

Celebrations

​

Days before the festival, people start gathering wood and combustible materials for the bonfire in parks, community centers, near temples and other open spaces. On top of the pyre is an effigy to signify Holika who tricked Prahalad into the fire. Inside homes, people stock up on pigments, food, party drinks and festive seasonal foods such as gujiya, mathri, malpuas and other regional delicacies.

​

Holika dahan

​

Holi celebrations start on the night before Holi with the ritual of Holika Dahan or "Chhoti Holi" where people gather and perform religious rituals in front of a bonfire and pray that their internal evils be destroyed the way Holika, the sister of the demon king Hiranyakashipu, was killed in the fire.

On the eve of Holi, typically at or after sunset, the pyre is lit, signifying Holika Dahan. The ritual symbolises the victory of good over evil. People gather around the fire to sing and dance.

​

Main day

​

The next morning is celebrated as Rangwali Holi (Dhuleti) where people smear and drench each other with colours. Water guns and water-filled balloons are often used to play and colour each other, with anyone and any place being considered fair game to color. Groups often carry drums and other musical instruments going from place to place singing and dancing. Throughout the day people visit family, and friends and foes come together to chat, enjoy food and drink, and partake in Holi delicacies.

Traditionally, washable natural plant-derived colours such as turmeric, neem, dhak, and kumkum were used, but water-based commercial pigments are increasingly used nowadays. All colours are used. Everyone in open areas such as, streets and parks is game, but inside homes or at doorways only dry powder is used to smear each other's face. People throw colours and get their targets completely coloured up. It is like a water fight, but with coloured water. People take delight in spraying coloured water on each other. By late morning, everyone looks like a canvas of colours. This is why Holi is given the name "Festival of Colours".

Groups sing and dance, some playing drums and dholak. After each stop of fun and play with colours, people offer gujiya, mathri, malpuas and other traditional delicacies. Cold drinks, including drinks made with marijuana,are also part of the Holi festivity.

​

Later in the day

After a day of play with colours, people clean up, wash and bathe, sober up and dress up in the evening and greet friends and relatives by visiting them and exchanging sweets. Holi is also a festival of forgiveness and new starts, which ritually aims to generate harmony in society. Many cities in Uttar Pradesh also organise Kavi Sammelan in the evening.

​

​

Holi colours

​

The spring season, during which the weather changes, is believed to cause viral fever and cold. The playful throwing of natural coloured powders, called gulal has a medicinal significance: the colours are traditionally made of neem, kumkum, haldi, bilva, and other medicinal herbs suggested by Āyurvedic doctors.

​

Many colours are obtained by mixing primary colours. Artisans produce and sell many of the colours from natural sources in dry powder form, in weeks and months preceding Holi. Some of the traditional natural plant-based sources of colours are:

​

Orange and red

The flowers of palash or tesu tree, also called the flame of the forest, are typical source of bright red and deep orange colours. Powdered fragrant red sandalwood, dried hibiscus flowers, madder tree, radish, and pomegranate are alternate sources and shades of red. Mixing lime with turmeric powder creates an alternate source of orange powder, as does boiling saffron (kesar) in water.

​

Green

Mehendi and dried leaves of gulmohur tree offer a source of green colour. In some areas, the leaves of spring crops and herbs have been used as a source of green pigment.

​​

Yellow

Haldi (turmeric) powder is the typical source of yellow colour. Sometimes this is mixed with chickpea (gram) or other flour to get the right shade. Bael fruit, amaltas, species of chrysanthemums, and species of marigold are alternate sources of yellow.

​

Blue

Indigo plant, Indian berries, species of grapes, blue hibiscus, and jacaranda flowers are traditional sources of blue colour for Holi.

​

Magenta and purple

Beetroot is the traditional source of magenta and purple colour. Often these are directly boiled in water to prepare coloured water.

​

Brown

Dried tea leaves offer a source of brown coloured water. Certain clays are alternate source of brown.

​

Black

Species of grapes, fruits of amla (gooseberry) and vegetable carbon (charcoal) offer grey to black colours.

​

During traditional Holi celebrations in India, colours are exchanged in person by tenderly applying coloured powder to another person's cheek", or by spraying and dousing others with buckets of coloured water.

​

​