Holi celebrated in city with traditional fervor

Hyderabad, March 20 (INN): The Festival of Colours, Holi, was celebrated with traditional fervor in the capital on Sunday. The festival is celebrated on Phalgun Purnima which falls at the end of February or in early March.

The Holi festival has an ancient origin and celebrates the triumph of 'good' over 'evil. The colourful festival bridges the social gap and renews sweet relationships. On this day, people wish each other 'Happy Holi' and smear colours.

Holi celebration begins with the traditional bonfire the evening before. Numerous legends and stories associated with Holi celebration makes the festival more exuberant and vivid.

People rub 'gulal' and 'abeer' on each others' faces and cheer up saying. The exuberance may sometimes get out of hand, but these small acts of good natured excesses are allowed to pass off.

Holi also gives a wonderful chance to send blessings and love to dear ones wrapped in a special Holi gift. In Vaishnava theology, Hiranyakashipu is the great king of demons, and he had been granted a boon by Brahma, which made it almost impossible for him to be killed.

The boon was due to his long penance, after which he had demanded that he not be killed 'during day or night; inside the home or outside, not on earth or in the sky; neither by a man nor an animal; neither by astra nor by sastra'.

Consequently, he grew arrogant and attacked the Heavens and the Earth. He demanded that people stop worshipping Gods and start praising him. Despite this, Hiranyakashipu's own son, Prahlada, was a devotee of Lord Vishnu. In spite of several threats from Hiranyakashipu, Prahlada continued offering prayers to Lord Vishnu.

He was poisoned but the poison turned to nectar in his mouth. He was ordered to be trampled by elephants yet remained unharmed. He was put in a room with hungry, poisonous snakes and survived.

All of Hiranyakashipu's attempts to kill his son failed. Finally, he ordered young Prahlada to sit on a pyre on the lap of his demoness sister, Holika, who could not die because she also had a boon which would prevent fire from burning her.

Prahlada readily accepted his father's orders, and prayed to Vishnu to keep him safe. When the fire started, everyone watched in amazement as Holika burnt to death, while Prahlada survived unharmed, the burning of Holika is celebrated as Holi.

Later Lord Vishnu came in the form of a Narasimha (who is half-man and half-lion) and killed Hiranyakashipu at dusk (which was neither day nor night), on the steps of the porch of his house (which was neither inside the house nor outside) by restraining him on his lap (which is neither in the sky nor on the earth) and mauling him with his claws (which are neither Astra nor Shastra).

In Vrindavan and Mathura, where Lord Krishna grew up, the festival is celebrated for 16 days (until Rangpanchmi) in commemoration of the divine love of Radha for Krishna. Lord Krishna is believed to have popularized the festival by playing pranks on the Gopis here. Krishna is believed to have complained to his mother about the contrast between his dark skin complexion and Radha's (Shakti or energy that drives the world) fair skin complexion. Krishna's mother decided to apply colour to Radha's face. The celebrations officially usher in spring, the celebrated season of love.