Festivals of India

Festivals of India, Indian Festivals, Holi, Rakshabandan

                              A festival is a celebration of life. It is a celebration, entertainment or a series of performance of certain kind, often held periodically.  Festivals bring peace and joy to the masses. They break the monotony of life. Indian festivals are numerous. They are of two types- religious and seasonal. They depict the religious association of the people. They mark the change of seasons. The people celebrate their faith or seasonal change with gaiety and enthusiasm. The religious festivals of India include Dussehra, Diwali, Janmastami, Shivaratri,Rama navami, Holi, Chath, Navaratri, Eid, Christmas, the festivals of parsis and jews, etc. The seasonal festivals include Bihu, Baisakhi, Onam, Pongal, Basant panchami, Rakshabandan etc.

Raksha-Bandhan Festival

Raksha-Bandhan means ‘the bond of protection’. It is also known as Rakhi and it is firstly observed in India, Mauritius and Nepal. It is a Hindu festival. It is also known as Rakhi poornima in most of India. This festival falls on the full moon day of the Sravan Month of the Hindu lunisolar calendar.

 This festival is about the relation between sister and brother, in that day sister tying a Rakhi (A holy thred) on her brother’s wrist and she prays for her brother and brother also promises himself to save his sister from every situation. It’s a lovable festival which brings happy and also cheers to our lives. Rakhi has strengthened the bond of love between brother and sister. This festival is about to remind us about our responsibilities not only this festival but also every Indian festival has it own significance and also tells about our relations and how we manage those.

Some other names of Raksha-Bandhan and Place:

Rakhi – North India

Gamha Purnima – Odisha

Narali poornima – Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa

Jandhyam Poornima – Uttarakhand

Kajari Poornima – Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand,  Bihar

Pavitropana – Gujarat

Julan purnima, poonal/Jandhya Poornima/Janyu -  Brahmins in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Konkan and odisha change their sacred threads on the same day.(janyu, called as Poonal in Tamil, Jandhyam in sanskrit)

Holi (colours of Festival)

                                            Holi is a religious spring festival and is celebrated by Hindus as a festival of colors. Primarily this festival is observed in India and Nepal. It is also observed by the minority Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan as well in countries with large Indian diaspora population following Hinduism, such as Malaysia, Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobaco, The United Kingdom, The United states, Mauritius and Fiji. It has some other names like phagwah in Assam, festival of colors or dolajatra in Odisha , Dol-jatra or Basantotsav(festival of colors) in West Bengal and Assam. Holi  is of particular significance in the Braj region, which includes locations traditionally connected to Lord Krishna. As per Hindu calendar, holi is celebrated on the phalgun poornima which comes in February or March in the Gregorian calendar.

                                            Every year thousands of Hindus participate in the festival of Holi. The festival has many purposes. The first and most import, it celebrates the beginning of the new season, spring.

Significance of Hoil :

The word Holi comes from ‘Holika’ sister of Hiranyakashipu. The holi is celebrated based on a story in the old Hindu religion. That is related to Hiranyakashipu , who is the great king of demons and he had been granted a boon by Brahma, which made it almost impossible him to be killed. Consequently, he grew arrogant and attacked the heavens and the earth. he demanded  that people stop worshipping gods and start praising respectively to him. But Prahlada, son of Hiranyakashipu  was a devotee of Vishnu. Inspite of several threats from Hiranyakashipu, prahlada continued praying to Vishnu. But Hiranyakashipu do a lot of attemps to kill Prahlada, but he failed. Finally, he ordered Prahlada to sit on a pyre in the lap of Holika, Hiranyakashipu’s demonees sister, who also could not die because she had a boon preventing her from being burned by fire. Prahlada accepted his father’s order and prayed to Lord Vishnu to keep him safe. When the fire started, everyone watched enthusiastically as Holika burnt to death, while prahlada survived unharmed. The salvation of Prahlada and burning of Holika is celebrated as Holi.

In Mathura, where Krishna grew up, the festival is celebrated for 16 days (until rangapanchami) in commemoration of the divine love of Radha and Krishna