Happy Holi

Happy Holi !!!

Holi - the festival of colors is one of the most popular festivals of the country. It is celebrated during the spring season and embodies all the festivity, liveliness and exuberance of the season. Holi is the festival of young hearts. Spraying colors, dancing on traditional Holi songs, musical drum beats and wild processions are the common scenes that one comes across during this festival. The festival is associated with various legends but the most popular among them is the tale of Hollika. According to legends there was a demon-king named Hiranyakashipu who was very cruel and ordered everybody to worship him and not God. He was against Lord Vishnu. However, his little son Prahlad refused to do so and continued to worship the almighty Lord Vishnu, the Hindu God. He tried hard to kill him but every time Lord Vishnu saved him. One of the sisters of the king named Holika had a boon to remain unscathed by fire, so she followed her brother's wishes. However, with this sinful act against Lord Narayana's devotee, Holika's boon ended and she was burnt to ashes, while Prahlad came out safe. From that day onwards Holi is celebrated as the festival of the victory of good over evil. Even today, bonfires are lit on the night before Holi in memory of the event and burning of the evil Holika. It symbolizes the victory of Good over evil. -->extract from Happy Holi

Ben and I ever celebrated Happy Holi with his colleagues and we are going to give it a miss this year as I am still having chesty cough. How do we celebrate it? They will prepare lots of Indian food and lots colourful powder(gulal). We will sing and dance and sprinkle all the colourful gulal in the air, apply on each other faces and clothings. Sounds fun, right? This is actually a festival of fun and nobody could miss being colored on this day.