March 29, 2021

Nepal observes festival of colors -Holi (Phagupurnima)

March 29, 2021

4 min read

Kathmandu: People of Nepal are observing the festival of colors or Holi (Phagupurnima) across the nation for the last two days.

Holi festival is celebrated for two days in Nepal. That is the first day for the hilly region and the second day for the plain region.

The people celebrate this festive day by visiting their like minded friends and exchange wishes for the holi festival by dancing and throwing the colors, red, blue, green, orange and vermillion at one another.

The Children enjoy this festival of colors by throwing colored water at one another. The holi festival means arrival of spring season and end of the winter days. Usually the end week of the March is the auspicious day when Holi festival is celebrated across the nation as per the calendar.

During the holi festival one can see the different colors spread all over the roads of Kathmandu valley. Holi is actually the great festival of Hindu people as the festival is associated with one of the religious events that is believed to have taken place in the religious myths of Hindu religion.

.This is the festival that brings all relatives, friends and loved ones together and even missing relatives together for reunion and refreshing the relationship.

On this occasion some people even like to drink the Bhang a special kind of drink which is consumed to enjoy merry making among the friends. Special dishes are prepared and served on the occasion and sweets are distributed to friends to mark this great festive occasion.

Legend about Holi

According to Hindu epic “Bhagavata Purana” there was a king named Hiranyakashap whose son was Pralad who used to pray to God Vishnu all the time. Since King Hiranyakashap was a demon king he did not want that his son should worship someone who was his enemy.

The king tried many time to punish his son, but his son Prahlad did not budge from his decision to worship lord Vishnu. King at last decided to end the life of his son and invited his sister Holika who had the boon not to be burnt in the fire to come home and let Prahlad die by fire while sitting on her lap.

Holika complied with the instructions of the king but the fire did not burn the son and instead the fire burnt Holika despite the boon she was blessed with. Then the people celebrated this day as the festival day to mark the victory of good over the evil.