The festival of Holi has various customs associated with it. Holi is
the festival of Spring, which signifies freshness and beauty. It is
associated with various emotions. Like it is the festival of romance,
the festival of victory of good over evil, a festival of colors and
festival of fun and enjoyment. People usually tend to forget their past
bitterness and makes a fresh start. The best part of the festival is
that everybody is in a holiday mood and enjoys the spirit of Holi. All
the offences and anger gets dissolved when one wishes another Happy
Holi. The festival is mainly celebrated on the full-moon day of
Phalguna, though it is celebrated for a week in Northern India and
six-day long in Manipur. According to the tradition people gather around
on a day before the Holi lit bonfires on the night before Holi in memory
of the event and burning of the evil Holika. It symbolizes the victory
of Good over evil. People take embers from this holy fire to rekindle
their own domestic fires.
In some communities, people roast barley seeds in the fire to eat and
it is believed that the yield of the coming harvest season can be
predicted by reading the direction of the flames or the state of the
roasted seeds. The ashes of the Holi fire are believed to have some
medicinal properties. Next morning, it is 'Dhuledi' or the main festival
of colors, Holi where everyone splashes each other with colored powder
and water jets known as 'pichkaris'. Traditionally, only natural colors
prepared from flowers and herbal products were used earlier but today,
artificial colors are available in the market. Now people often use
colored foams and balloons filled with colored water. The colors like
red, green, blue, orange, purple acts as healers and wash away all the
enmity and hatred among people. The festival of Holi brings the
community closer. Holi sweets and delicacies are an important part of
the festival as one can try out 'Gujhias' in northern India and 'Puran
Poli' in Maharashtra. 'Thandai' (a cool drink of milk) mixed with
'bhang' (an intoxicating substance) to bright up their Holi spirit. In
other words its party time and time to enjoy and have fun.
