Major religious
celebration held on the full moon in the lunar month of Phalgun
(February–March), which falls towards the conclusion of the lunar year in
northern India.
Holi is mainly a reversal holiday that is widely celebrated
throughout India.
Holi, as the lunar year's last major festival, mirrors the
pattern of cosmic disintegration seen in other units of time, such as the solar
day or the mahayuga, the main unit of cosmic time.
In this pattern, the cosmos' order slowly deteriorates until
all order is lost, but after a certain amount of time, the universe is
abruptly, totally, and flawlessly reconstructed.
The Holi event is divided into two parts: a bonfire on the
evening before Holi and the "festival of colors" on Holi morning.
Material for the bonfire is gathered in the weeks leading up
to Holi, and although the items placed on it are intended to be old and
worn-out (to symbolize getting rid of the old), much newer items are often
placed on it as well, and this is a period when people carefully secure their
valuables.
Various societal taboos are broken down in the days leading
up to Holi.
Author Lawrence Babb recounts on the usage of vulgarity and
bawdy talk at this period in his book The Divine Hierarchy, including printing
the word "penis" all over town using stamps cut from potatoes.
Pranks like pelting passers-by with water balloons are
becoming increasingly prevalent as Holi approaches.
Although such conduct is ultimately innocuous, it is
completely undesirable in everyday life and represents the impending cosmic
dissolution.
The bonfire is lighted on Holi night, signifying the
destruction of the old, and people may hurl obscenities at the fire as a way of
getting rid of enmities from the previous year.
The bonfire is said to have originated from the demon
Holika, who attempted to mislead her brother Prahlada into being roasted on a
campfire but was destroyed by the flames herself.
Holi, the "festival of colors," reaches its
pinnacle the morning following the bonfire.
The merchants in the marketplaces exhibit mounds of powders
in different hues, most typically in brilliant greens, reds, and purple; the
colors are utilized as powders or blended with water, and are displayed for
weeks before Holi.
People use syringes or balloons to play with the colored
water.
Each participant takes a little amount of colored powder and
softly puts it on the other person's forehead in the gentlest sort of play.
People smearing and soaking each other in colors, coloring
each other's garments in numerous colours, and staining each other's skin for
weeks thereafter are all examples of how people play with colors.
This, and all other Holi-related pranks, are invariably
defined as "play" (khel), and the underlying notion is that no matter
how outrageous the conduct or how sharp the insults, one cannot get furious
with the people with whom one is playing.
The Holi festival is the one day of the year when the
typical social structure is entirely ignored, as are the taboos against
physical contact, which are primarily motivated by a desire for ritual purity.
Holi is also notable for being one of the rare occasions
when socially acceptable individuals consume bhang, a narcotic preparation
derived from ground-up marijuana.
The morning is a flurry of noise, confusion, and color, with
virtually no regulations (at street level), symbolizing the anarchy of cosmic
collapse.
In the afternoon, though, cosmic (and social) order is
restored.
People bathe, change into fresh clothing, and visit without
fear of being colored, and anybody brazen enough to pelt someone with colors
during this time will be severely chastised.
The liberty connected with Holi has recently been used as an
occasion for all kinds of antisocial conduct, especially in bigger cities:
public intoxication, groping women, destroying property, and the chance to
settle old grudges by physically injuring individuals.
Because of the turmoil, many individuals in major cities
remain at home during Holi, "playing" with members of their close
family in the softer atmosphere that is known as "genuine" Holi.
The government has taken some measures in response to the
danger of public order, but the holiday's character makes it impossible to
regulate—as a reverse celebration, the government is just another entity to be
ignored on that morning.
Various government bodies have also attempted to prohibit
the habit of building bonfires, however the issue here is primarily
deforestation rather than social disorder.
See McKim Marriot, "The Feast of Love," in Milton
Singer (ed. ), Krishna: Myths, Rites, and Attitudes, 1966; and Lawrence Babb,
The Divine Hierarchy, 1975, for further details.
You may also want to read more about Hinduism here.
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