Festival of Holi and Its Significance

The festival of Holi is celebrated all over India with great pomp and show. People throw colours at each other and enjoy tasty sweetmeats and thandai with bhaang balls in them.

Holi is a festival of happiness, harmony, and peace.

Just a day prior to the main event, Holika Dahan is celebrated. On this day, people make huge bonfires outside their homes and then at night burn it, all the while throwing puffed rice or peanuts into it. They sing and dance around the fire.

Holika Dahan is celebrated so as to remove all evils from our path and to usher in happiness and good luck.

The story of Holika Dahan goes like this- Once upon a time, there lived a demon king by the name of Hiranyakashyap. He had a son named Prahlad.

Prahlad was a great devotee of Vishnu and refused to worship his father as a God. This made Hiranyakashyap really furious and he decided to kill his son then and there. He hired many demons to eliminate his son but none of them worked as Lord Vishnu was always there to protect Prahlad at all times. Thus, the child remained unscathed.

When he failed thus, Hiranyakashyap decided to call in his sister Holika. He instructed her to take Prahlad with her and sit in the yagna fire so that his son dies in the fire. Holika had the boon of not getting burnt in a fire.

But as soon as she sat in the fire with Prahlad on her lap, something extraordinary happened. Instead of Prahlad burning, it was Hiranyakashyap’s sister who got burnt in the yagna fire and was reduced to ashes. Prahlad once again was saved by Lord Vishnu.

Since then, Holika Dahan is celebrated in the exact same way all over India. People burn bonfires and celebrate this day with great pomp and fervour.

We, at BookPal, wish you all a very Happy Holika Dahan. May all evils of your life be destroyed in the fire, ushering in happiness and prosperity.