Holi - The festival of colours | Story behind celebrating Holi | Holi



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Holi, the festival of colours is one of the favourite festivals of Indians. The whole day is filled up of joy , happiness and fun. It is a 2 days long festival .


On the first day(poornima aka full moon ), we Indians make a huge heep of wood pieces and then families come to worship it . When it is the perfect time ( mahurat) according to hinduism , the heap of wooden items which is called holika


is burnt ( holika dahan) while Brahmans chant the mantras ( a word or sound that is believed to have a special spiritual power). In the fire , newly harvested wheat is cooked .
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The story behind the holika dahan is -

 There was once a demon king named Hiranyakashyap who conquered the whole earth. He was so egoistic that he commanded everyone to worship no one else but him . But to his great disappointment, his own son , Prahlad became an ardent devotee of lord Vishnu
(a Hindu god and one of the three supreme gods)  and worshiped no one else , not even his father.  




 Many times Hiranyakashyap tried to kill his son but lord Vishnu saved him each time . Finally, he asked his sister , Holika to enter a blazing fire with Prahlad in her lap , as she had got a boon in which she could enter the fire unscathed.




 Treacherously, Holika coaxed young Prahlad to sit in her lap and she herself took her seat in a blazing fire. The legend says that holika had to pay the price of her sinister desire, by her life.




 Prahlad , who kept chanting the name of lord Vishnu all this while, came out unharmed , as the lord blessed him for his extreme devotion. 




 Thus, Holi derives its name from Holika. And ,is celebrated as a festival of victory of good over evil.

 The End of this Legend
 On the second day , people put powdered colours, throw water balloons and spray water on each other . 

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Around holi time people also prepare sweets called gujia (sweet stuffed with sweet powder) .




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