Description

Holi festival celebrates each & every state of India in different- different ways. In the Rajasthan, the Holi festival celebrates with colors & flowers. There is some event organizer organize Holi festival with some activity like rain dance, color dance, asking question-answer related Holi festival, etc.

There is a symbolic legend to explain why Holi is celebrated as a festival of colors in the honor of Hindu god Vishnu and his follower Prahlada.

King Hiranyakaship, according to a legend found in chapter 7 of Bhagavata Purana, was the king of demonic Asuras and had earned a boon that gave him five special powers, he could be killed by neither a human being nor an animal, neither indoors nor outdoors, neither at day nor at night, neither by Astra (projectile weapons) nor by any Shastra (handheld weapons), and neither on land nor in water or air.

Hiranyakashipu grew arrogant, thought he was God and demanded that everyone worship only him.

Hiranyakashipu's own son, Prahlada, however, disagreed. He was and remained devoted to Vishnu. This infuriated Hiranyakashipu. He subjected Prahlada to cruel punishments, none of which affected the boy or his resolve to do what he thought was right. Finally, Holika, Prahlada's evil aunt, tricked him into sitting on a pyre with her. Holika was wearing a cloak that made her immune to injury from fire, while Prahlada was not.

As the fire roared, the cloak flew from Holika and encased Prahlada, who survived while Holika burned. Vishnu, the God who appears as an avatar to restore Dharma in Hindu beliefs, took the form of Narasimha - half human and half lion, at dusk (when it was neither day nor night), took Hiranyakashyap at a doorstep (which was neither indoors nor outdoors), placed him on his lap (which was neither land, water nor air),

and then eviscerated and killed the king with his lion claws (which were neither a handheld weapon nor a launched weapon).

The Holika bonfire and Holi signifies the celebration of the symbolic victory of good over evil, of Prahlada over Hiranyakashipu, and of the fire that burned Holika.