Holi is a festival of colors, joy and happiness and it is celebrated with much enthusiasm and joy. However, in India there are numerous of festivals being celebrated and enjoyed almost every year, but holi has got its unique significance in the Indian culture. After all it is a festival of colors so it is obviously believed to bring many reasons of togetherness and warm-fellowship among each of the Indian. Holi brings happiness and mirth within each one of us and besides this this festival has a lot more to convey. We all are aware of the religious or fundamental significance in the Indian culture behind celebrating the festival of holi i.e the “dahan of holika ( parental aunt of prince prahlaad) in the fire which is considered to be the funeral of all the bad and negative intentions and consciousness in the holy fire and birth and survival of goodness and positivity. But as I said that festival holi has a bigger significance. According to the traditional Indian culture; holi is considered to be the ‘beginning’ of a new year. It is supposed to be the revival for our mother earth. With this day the nature revives, and refreshes itself. This is also the beginning of a new season, everything is new and fresh. In fact, with holi it is believed that the physiological cycle of human beings dramatically changes. That is also why most of the human beings get ill around this period, they feel lethargic too. It is the time of the shift from old to the new; a transformational process actually. That is why holi is supposed to be a festival of newness, and this is the only reason why it is being played with colors; because colors bring newness and ebullience in life. Let us ponder over the other significances of this festival more deeply. Spiritual Significance: spiritually the festival of holi is an occasion for forgetting the old situations, habits, conditions and to bring good and positive thoughts, habits and conditions in one’s life. The word ‘holi’ signifies ‘ho-li’ means; that which happened had gone so there is no use in wasting your time and energy to regret over it.( “jo hona tha so ho liya”). Holi is the festival of bringing transformation and leaving the old/negative/bad thoughts far behind. The spiritual masters of India believe; this festival to be a new beginning for the human beings and they believe that as the nature also shifts from its old orderliness to a new one likewise the human beings also should make a shift in their mind-sets which lead them to transform themselves in new personalities. Cultural Significance: Culturally, this festival is so vibrant and joyful. As such not so many rituals are involved, but holi-dahan is considered to be the main and traditional ritual of this festival. When all the people do gather to join for the holi fire, it instantly fills their hearts with much of warmth and happiness. Everyone revolves around the holy fire and pray to the god to bring the warmth of companionship and oneness within each other. Holi is filled with colors and sweets, bhang; the much famous Indian traditional drink is especially prepared on this day. Families and friends put colors on each other’s faces, that signifies the gestures of giving best wishes to each other.Gujiyas; a typical Indian sweet is specially made for this day. They are served to the friends and relatives. These gujiyas are filled with dry-fruits that are supposed to be good agent of energy and strength booster. All these things are done to make the transformation process easy and joyful for the nature as well the human beings. Ecological Significance: As we have already learned that the hole is considered to be the revival of the whole nature and the mother earth thus this festival has an ecological significance as well. A day prior to the occasion of holi that is being played with colors, the holy fire is burnt in order to pursue the central ritual of holi festival. Since this is the time of a transformation in the nature and the human beings, both are in a very crucial state. The human cycle and the ecology are making a drastic shift now and they are entering into a new mode of cycle thus they are more prone to many contagions, diseases, virus, germs during this significant period. But it is believed that when the holy fire of the holi festival is burnt, then it releases a huge amount of hot spell in the atmosphere that eventually kills the bacteria, virus and germs spread into the atmosphere and actually helps the same to detoxify itself. That is why the holi fire is burnt and should be burned in a greater number at different places. But this is also should be noticed that people do not burn waste and crap into the fire that further creates problems for the ecology. Simple woods would be suffice for this ceremonial fire. Holi, is a wonderful festival that should be understood with its greater significance which will eventually double the joy of celebration. We Indians should be proud of our culture that has bestowed us festivals like the Holi that not only brings reasons to celebrate, but also teach us; how does the life cycle works and operates too.
