{"id":1460,"date":"2014-03-16T16:56:55","date_gmt":"2014-03-16T16:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/2014\/03\/holi-2014\/"},"modified":"2020-07-15T18:47:25","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T17:47:25","slug":"holi-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/?p=1460","title":{"rendered":"Holi 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>NHSF (UK) Learning Team<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>17<sup>th<\/sup> March 2014 (Phalguna Sud 15 in the Hindu calendar)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>Holi <\/i>falls on the day of the full moon during Phalguna, and is the most colourful festival in the Hindu calendar. It is full joy and optimism for the start of Spring, a season of hope and new beginnings. Following the cold indoor months of winter, people emerge out to see a new sparkling world of colour and life.<\/p>\n<h2><!--more--> Origins<\/h2>\n<p><i>Holi<\/i> is a very ancient festival, originally known as <i>\u2018Holika\u2019<\/i>. It has been mentioned in early scriptures such as <i>Jaimini&#8217;s Purvamimamsa-Sutras<\/i> and <i>Kathaka-Grhya-Sutras<\/i>. <i>Shree Krishna<\/i> is also said to have playfully celebrated <i>Holi <\/i>with the people of <i>Nandagow<\/i> and <i>Vraj.<\/i> Originally, it was a special rite performed by married women for the happiness and well being of their families. The festival falls on the full moon <i>(Raka)<\/i> of Phalguna.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Puranas, <i>Holi<\/i> is important for three reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It was on this day <i>Lord Shiva<\/i> opened his third eye, reducing <i>Kamadeva<\/i> (the God of Love) to ashes. <i>Kamadeva<\/i>\u2019s foolish pride led him to aiming an arrow at <i>Lord Shiva<\/i>, who was deep in meditation. However, aware of this, <i>Lord Shiva <\/i>killed <i>Kamadeva<\/i> before he could do any harm.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>An ogress named <i>Dhundhi <\/i>lived in the kingdom of <i>Prthu (Raghu).<\/i> Here she used to trouble the children of the Kingdom, and due to several boons, she was invincible. However, it was on this day she disappeared for life. A curse from <i>Lord Shiva<\/i>, which created a weakness in her armour led to the shouts and pranks of mischievous boys affecting her.<\/li>\n<li>Perhaps the most widely known story behind <i>Holi <\/i>is of <i>Prahlad<\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The demon king, <i>Hiranyakashipu<\/i> was father to a boy named <i>Prahlad<\/i>. Although being born into a demon family, <i>Prahlad <\/i>always had a strong belief in God and was a great devotee of <i>Vishnu.<\/i> However, <i>Hiranyakashipu<\/i> was not pleased as he saw himself as the Lord of the Universe and demanded his son to worship him. <i>Prahlad<\/i> disagreed, and although multiple attempts were made to take his life, he survived.<\/p>\n<p>It was on this day that one such attempt was made. <i>Hiranyakashipu<\/i> asked his sister, <i>Holika<\/i>, to help him kill <i>Prahlad. Holika<\/i> had a boon which meant she could not be burnt by fire, so she took <i>Prahlad<\/i> in her lap and sat on a pyre of wood, which was set ablaze. Although Hiranyakashipu intended to kill <i>Prahlad<\/i>, it was <i>Holika<\/i> that died and <i>Prahlad<\/i> survived, as she had misused her powers. <i>Hiranyakashipu<\/i> was later killed by <i>Narasimha<\/i>, an avatar of <i>Vishnu<\/i>.<\/p>\n<h2>Celebrations<\/h2>\n<p>There are formal religious observances on this day.<\/p>\n<p>An image of <i>Holika<\/i> is set alight in a simple ceremony on with the Raksoghna <i>Mantras of the Rig Veda <\/i>being chanted to ward off evil spirits. Coconuts and corn are often roasted and eaten. The religious significance of this is to mark the burning of the undesirable tendencies (selfishness, greed, egoism), and celebrate the coming of spring, a victory of good over evil.<\/p>\n<p>People all over India and the world also celebrate <i>Holi <\/i>with much pomp and celebration. Throwing g<i>ulal <\/i>(coloured water or perfumed coloured powder) on one another is the most significant celebrations that happen. This playful activity of throwing coloured paint is designed to remove the barriers that people sometimes build around themselves. <i>Holi<\/i> renews the spirit of unity and brotherhood among families and in the community.<\/p>\n<p><i><b>Holi is celebrated by NHSF (UK) chapters all across the country!<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-2940\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/holiposter-300x187.jpg\" alt=\"holiposter\" width=\"510\" height=\"318\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/holiposter-300x187.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/holiposter-600x375.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/holiposter-64x40.jpg 64w, https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/holiposter-700x437.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/holiposter.jpg 945w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For further information on the festival of Holi visit:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hinduhumanrights.info\/narasimha-avatar\/\">http:\/\/www.hinduhumanrights.info\/narasimha-avatar\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NHSF (UK) Learning Team 17th March 2014 (Phalguna Sud 15 in the Hindu calendar) Holi falls on the day of the full moon during Phalguna, and is the most colourful festival in the Hindu calendar. It is full joy and optimism for the start of Spring, a season of hope and new beginnings. Following the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-utsavs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}