| Sweets are
distributed to children and relatives visit during Holi
with exchange of sweets. In the previous night, before
the day of Holi, people in the neighborhood light bon
fires, called Holikas, on the cross roads. It is often
a community celebration and people do pujan (worship)
of goddess Holika prior to lighting the bon fire.
Bon fires date back to the days of Hiranyakashipu,
when he ordered his son Prahlad, a devotee of Lord Vishnu,
to be burnt alive; because Hiranyakashipu hated Lord
Vishnu.
Hiranyakashipu asked his sister Holika
to wear the magic cloth that would not catch fire and
hold Prahlad tightly on her lap so that he would die
in the flames and she would not be hurt.
| Holika could not
bear to kill the child. So she quietly transferred
the magic clothes onto Prahlad and got burnt herself,
thus saving Prahlad. Holika attained heaven for
her pious act. The ashes of the bone fire is streaked
on the forehead of people to bring good luck in
the year ahead.
In front of the bon fire the neighborhood stars
may have songs and dances for fun. Children roast
green gram, potato and other things in the bon
fire for their picnic. |
 |
The bon fire may be left in its place
for several days and then cleaned out. The colorful
festival of Holi is closely associated with Lord Krishna,
who in his young age played and frolicked with his band
of cowherds and maidens (the Gopis) of the village in
the hamlets of Bridavan, Gokul and Barsana.
Lord Krishna played Holi with so much
gusto that even today the songs sung during Holi are
full of the pranks that he played on the Gopis, especially
his childhood sweet heart Radhika, who lived in Barsana.
Krishna's romantic tales are also remembered
during the time of Holi. Krishna grew up into a handsome
young man, entrancing everyone with the magic of his
flute which he used to call back lost cattle and cowherds
alike. The milkmaids all fell hopelessly in love with
him and realized that he was blessed by Vishnu.
"If only we could all be flutes" they
thought longingly, "so that we could be constantly caressed
by Krishna's lips."
Krishna knew their love for him and often
teased them. One day as the young girls bathed in the
river, Krishna stole their clothes and took them up
into a nearby tree. When the girls looked around, they
saw Krishna in the tree dressed in saffron robes, his
head and neck covered with garlands and with the blue
skin of Vishnu himself. The girls realized that he was
indeed the embodiment of Vishnu and, ashamed of their
nakedness, they crouched down into the water. However,
Krishna spoke to them gently. "Clothes matter little
in the other life," he said. "Your nakedness is merely
a sign of your closeness to me. A child is not ashamed
before its father nor a wife before her husband. So
come one by one and take your clothes from me. While
you are in this world, you need to cover yourselves
for this is the world of material things where appearance
and customs matter."
When they had dressed themselves again,
Krishna promised each of the girls that he would dance
with them on the night of the full moon. Overjoyed,
they all returned home to their husbands.
From the philosophical point of view,
love is divine. The playful frolics between Radha and
Krishna and their eternal love, are remembered on the
day of Holi by throwing colors between friends and relations.
We all would like to share that divine love, even momentarily,
during the day of the festivity, amidst the limitations
of our earthly surround. |
