HOLI - Great Indian Festival । Holi Essay- The Festival of Colours

HOLI - Great Indian Festival । Holi Essay- The Festival of Colours । Indian Festival

Many festivals are celebrated in India. Holi is one of them. 'Holi' (the festival of colours) is a festival that always rendered in India. Holi is a great Indian festival of the Hindus. It is a festival of colours and fun. This is the day when we are allowed to anoint each other with colours and stuff ourselves with sweets. This is also the day when people forgive and forget offense or any differences with someone who wants to reunite. A night before Holi, a big fire is burnt. Holi has a religious background. 

As the legend goes, 'Holi' is named after 'Holika', the sister of cruel King Hiranya Kashyap. The king claimed himself to be Almighty and asked all his subjects to worship him instead of God. But his own son, Prahalad, worshipped God, not the king. Holika was blessed not to be burnt in fire, so she tried to kill Prahalad on the insistence of the king by sitting in pyre with Prahalad. Prahalad came hale and hearty out of the pyre but Holika was burnt to ashes. Thus, Holi marks the victory of good over evil.

On the eve of Holi, we had a huge bonfire in front of the house. Many neighbours too joined us and we sang and danced late into the night. The next day soon after breakfast, we took our packets of colour and went out of the house.

First, we put a little color on the feet of our elders and sought their blessings. Then out we rushed and flung hand full of colours at each other. Soon we were covered from head to toe in all the colors of the rainbow.

Just as the tempo began to slow down, a group of children from the neighbouring houses came in. Once more we started smearing each other with colours. This time we even played with colored water. We had prepared many buckets of coloured water and these we freely threw at each other. When all of us were drenched to the skin we decided to rest for some time. My aunt brought out sweets and lassi and we thoroughly enjoyed the cool drinks.

As the morning wore on and we began feeling hungry, all of us had a bath and sat down to the rich meal that my aunt had prepared. Although we had scrubbed ourselves, looking around the table we laughed to see the colourful faces. Some of us still had colors on our faces and hands. We knew it would take a few more days to be completely removed. We didn't have any skin allergies due to Holi colors because we had used natural colors. In the evening we once more gathered to sing and dance together. Truly it had been one of my most enjoyable Holis.

King Hiranyakashyap tried to burn his son, Prahlad. Prahlad used to worship Lord Vishnu. The king did not like this. The king’s sister Holika had a blessing that she could not be burnt in the fire. So the king asked his sister to burn Prahlad. She sat in the fire with Prahlad. But instead of Prahlad, Holika was burnt. Holi is celebrated with colors. People throw water and 'Gulal' on one another. Children enjoy this festival most. They dance and sing and play with colours. It is difficult to recognize children's faces on this day.