The spring is a season of religious fasting and feasting and includes many festivals. Last year, the holidays seemed back-to-back and overlapping, and they are doing the same this year. It’s the joy of how holidays are often celebrated depending on the moon and the events took place around the same time. This series will explore Holi, Ramadan, Passover, and Easter since they are the most popular.
Holi is a Hindu holiday on March 14 where people around the world throw colorful dust at each other to honor Krishna, the Hindu god of love, compassion, and protection. Holi is said like “Holy”. People often sing and dance along with eating festive foods, lighting bonfires the night before, and visiting temples. Another tradition is to wear old clothes because they will get stained with the colors. Most choose to wear white so they can keep the stained clothes as a fun memory.
This festival of colors celebrates the divine love of the deities Radha and Krishna, and good defeating evil. The story behind this tradition is that Krishna was jealous of Radha’s fair complexion. Krishna went to Yashoda (his mother) and Yashoda suggested that Krishna should put color on each other’s faces. Krishna loved the idea and went to put color on Radha’s face. Radha put color on Krishna’s face as well and they fell in love.
Another story of Holi is that Hiranyakashipu, the demon king’s son, was a devout worshiper of Lord Vishnu. Hiranyakashipu ordered his sister, Holika, to kill Prahlad. Holika, who was known for being immune to fire, made a plan that Prahlad would join her by the fire in hopes that Prahlad would die. However, Lord Vishnu protected Prahlad and Holika died in the flames instead. A lesson of Holi is to have faith.
Sophomore Ipsitha Karnam said, “We are the decorations. In India, people usually wear bright colors, but on Holi, we wear plain clothes to not show off. Then at the end we throw color everywhere so we all look the same.”
People work to get color all over their friends and themselves. If they don’t have color on a certain spot they can ask for help. It turns everyone into the same colorful, beautiful mess.
One of the common traditions on Holi is to eat sweet foods. A lot of foods are made with honey and candies. Jalebi, a common treat, is like a funnel cake that can be dipped in honey.
Sophomore Joshita Mani Wadaparthi said, “My family eats sweet balls called Gulab Jumun. They are really good.”
Freshman Diya Krishnan Karthikeyan and sophomore Keerthana Nagulapalli have celebrated Holi in India before. They explained that there were a lot more people celebrating Holi in India. There were parties beforehand to gather everyone together. In India, sand art is popular. Karnam explained the sand area creates a “unique door mat” that welcomes guests.
Karthikeyan said, “One year we brought in water guns that we put color in. We used the spray to spread the powder. I remember when I got yellow powder in my teeth and it tasted awful.”
The next article in this “Celebrating religion this spring” series will be about Ramadan, a fast during the day but a feast at night to remember how the Prophet got the Quran. This holiday will take place from Feb. 28-March 29.
