Sunday, March 11, 2007

The Legend of Holi

Last weekend was Holi and Rangapanchami. In India, this festival is celebrated all over with great happines.it is said that "holi" is so called after "Holika" the demoness sister of the demon king Hiranyakashap. he had a son called Prahlad who was a vishnu devotee. This devotion of Prahlad to Lord Vishnu used to anger Hiranyakashap a lot. Once,he made his sister Holika sit with prahlad on her lap and lit a fire around her. Holika was previously given a boon by Lord Brahma that no fire could cause her any harm if she wore a shawl presented to her by him. But just as she was holding prahlad on her lap, Vishnu created a gust of wind which blew away the shawl and thus consumed her but spared Prahlad.thus began the legend, lore, myth, story, tradition of Holi. and of course of Puran Polis.
Rangapanchami is more of colorful celebration. this is when Lord Krishna and his friends played with colors with the gopikas. i think it is to welcome the arrival of spring by colors after a long cold dreary winter. today gulal etc is used for that. water filled balloons and pichkaris are traditionally used to play.
here is chicago, Holi/rangapanchami is celebrated in the temple.
But back in India it is more fun. Fun to hang with your friends on Rangapanchami and douse everyone with color and water. :)
i miss it:)

1 comment:

Punekar Abroad said...

Hi... tu blog lihtes mahit navhte.. blog is cool.. are u studying? saw that u r taking internship credits... nice...may I add ur blog to my blogroll? :-)