Essays

Essay On My Favorite festival Holi

March 27, 2023 - By Siddhant Rathour

Contents

Introduction

The culture of India is full of festivals and celebrations. Holi festival, also known as “the festival of colours”, is one of them. This festival falls in the month of March (sometimes in February). People celebrate this festival with great zeal and enthusiasm. Children are the ones who await this festival the most.

The festival of Holi is celebrated for two to three days. Holi is a festival in which we forget our enmities and enjoy the festival’s spirit. Holi is named the festival of colours because people play with colours and apply them to one another’s faces to get coloured in the spirit of the festival.

Stories Behind this Festival

There are many stories behind the celebration of the Holi festival but mainly based on a legend king Hiranyakashyap. He had a son, Prahlad. Prahlad was the greatest devotee of Lord Vishnu. His father wanted to kill him because he never wanted Prahlad to worship Lord Vishnu.

So he called his sister, Holika. She had the blessing of not being burnt into the fire. Hiranyakashyap requested her sister to sit on a bonfire along with Prahlad so that Prahlad would be burnt to death. But the outcome was the opposite of what the demon king planned. Holika died and Prahlad survived. This incident signifies the winning of good over evil.

Rituals of Holi

This festival has a sequence of rituals that are followed by the Hindu community every year with great spirit. This set of rituals includes preparation, Holika Dahan, the play of colours, and visiting the houses of friends and loved ones.

Before the festival people start collecting wood for the burning of the bonfire called “Holika Dahan” at the main crossroads of the town. This assures that at the moment of the exact celebration, an enormous pile of wood is collected. On the eve of Holi, Holika Dahan takes place. Effigy of Holika is placed on the collection of wood and burnt to ashes. The next day playing of colours takes place.

Holi celebration

People enjoy delight in sprinkling coloured water on each other by Pichkaris or pouring containers of it. Playing Bollywood Holi numbers and dancing on the beat is also a part of the culture. Amidst all that, people enjoy Gujhiya, Mathri, Malpuas, and other delicacies with immense joy.

After playing colours, people dress in new clothing and visit each other’s houses to greet them. A tradition of hugging each other is also a part of this fabulous festival. This festival brings people closer to each other be they friends or enemies.

Significance of This festival

Despite being such a colourful and interesting festival, there are multiple aspects of Holi that make it so significant to our lives. Holi gets people close to each other and their religions. it brings happiness to life. A sense of unity is generated in the hearts of citizens. All the enemies come to an end turning into friendship and brotherhood.

The name ” the festival of colours” is well defined as it fills people’s life with colours making them colourful. The entire country gets into a colourful texture.

The Downsides

We can not ignore the downsides of this festival. This festival causes waste of water which is a subject of concern for us. By adopting some eco-friendly ways, we can save water and can help our environment. The other thing to consider is that harsh colours can irritate and damage the skin cells of people. We should always use herbal colours and gals to tackle this problem.

Final words

To sum it up, Holi spreads love and joy. It brings peace and happiness to the country. Holi signifies the victory of good over evil. This colourful festival unites people and extracts all kinds of negativity from life. But on the other hand, a natural resource, water, is wasted at a large scale on this festivity, So it this our duty to make people aware of and enjoy a nature-friendly festival.