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Thursday March 8, 2007

Happy Holi

 The great Indian festival of colours Holi was celebrated across the country on Sunday.

One of the most auspicious days on the Hindu calendar, the festival marks the beginning of spring and celebrates the triumph of good over evil.

However, it is the riot of colours and some mouth-watering delicacies that brought the country alive. People distributed sweets and took out processions in a melange of colours.

Good v/s evil

In Vrindavan and Mathura, the two cities with which Lord Krishna shared a deep affiliation, Holi is celebrated over 16 days.

In a re-enactment of the legend associated with Holi, priests in Mathura city walked through a fireball.

It is believed that Prahlad, a devotee of Lord Vishnu, sat on a fire with his sister Holika, a symbol of evil but while Prahlad emerged unscathed, Holika perished in the flames.

In Puri, after a colourful procession, Lord Krishna a representative deity of Lord Jagannath was placed at a high altar near the main gate of the Puri temple.

The devotees and main priests of the temple celebrated the Yatra in style and painted each other with dry Gulaal or Fagoo as it's locally known.

The deities were placed on a swing. The dolo yatra is the third biggest festival in Puri after Rath Yatra and Chandan Yatra.

Celebrations with gusto

And without gujia and bhang, Holi loses some of its colour.

In Lucknow, a 15 foot gujia was on display and the person who has funded the preparation of this Holi delicacy is a Muslim, Syed Rafat.

It will be on display, preserved for the next few days before it is broken down. The preparation of this gujia has cost the owner Rs two lakh and 100 tins of desi ghee.

Holi was also being celebrated with gusto in Bihar where Rail Minister Lalu Yadav joined the festivities.