Holi Hai!

The story behind the Festival of Colours

Feeling a little homesick today under the gray skies of Cape Town, I can’t help but smile as I’m bombarded by pictures and videos of friends and family in India celebrating holi on a hot sunny day. 

Everyone from toddlers to grannies lovingly throwing powdered gulaal in every imaginable colour (yea the same stuff you probably associate with colour runs), the naughtier young people sneaking in eggs and permanent stains, Uncles indulging in bhang (a traditional cannabis drink) and aunties and kids breaking it down to my favourite Daler Mehendi songs- bolo tarararaararararararararar!! All with sporadic chants of “Holi Hai!”- it’s the festival of colour folks!

People around the world are enamored by India’s ability to pull off the biggest single-day colour fest without any formal organization or the hefty $$$ pricetag, but few know the cultural and mythological significance of the day. So I thought I’d share one of my favourite childhood stories, passed down through generations of oral tradition- the story of Holika Dahan! (ps- I am not a Hindu Mythology expert so the following story is just a rendition of what I grew up with- fact checkers, you’ve been warned).

There once lived a king! An evil king! The demon-king Hiranyakashyap (we’ll go ahead and call him HK). HK was an egomaniacal, narcissistic monarch who wanted his people to acknowledge him not just as their supreme leader, but also their God. He insisted that praying to all other deities seize, and all devotion be dedicated to him alone!

You’d be surprised to learn that sons rebelling against dads isn’t a modern day phenomenon and in true teen spirit (not really, he was about 5 years old, but mature for his age), HK’s son, and our protagonist, Prahlad makes an entrance with the declaration that he is devout and will remain devout to Lord Vishnu! Vishnu is one of the holy trinity Gods of Hinduism, Brahma being the creator, Vishnu being the nurturer, and Shiva being the destroyer. 

All hell breaks loose, for if HK can’t even get his own progeny to obey him, how can he expect his people to do the same.  

At this point, I would just like to point out that parenting simply wasn’t the same back in the day. Kids seem pretty disposable in Mythology- always the first ones up for sacrificial rights, always getting sold in child marriage for alliances, basically casual assets with some associated value. HK was much the same and decided he had to torture his son into submission. His 5 year old. Yea.

But our boy Prahlad was a chosen favourite of Vishnu, and mostly came out unscathed, and undeterred in his devotion. HK was obviously not pleased and decided that the torture and abuse were not cutting it, so Prahlad had to go. 

A plan was hatched with HK’s sister Holika- who through her own meditations had earned a great reward- a fireproof scarf! Holika would sit with Prahlad in her lap atop a pyre with the idea being that the fire would consume our little hero and Holika would come out unscathed. I haven’t done this enough justice, but Prahlad was really really devoted to Vishnu, and Vishnu did more than VIP backstage passes for his superfans. So as the fire roared, as the temperatures rose, and as Holika cackled in true Cruella style, a great wind rose. HK watched in great horror as the wind blew the magical fire-retardant scarf onto little Prahlad and his favourite little evil sister Holika burnt to a medium-well crisp.

HK was DESTROYED- emotionally, and decided to take matters into his own hands. So he headed towards Prahlad, weapon of choice in hand…but before I go there, you need some backstory. 

HK didn’t always have God-complex. He once acknowledged the existence of, and superiority of Brahma (the Creator). HK wanted to be immortal and knew only Brahma could grant this, so he performed all the rights, rituals, and sacrifices he had to, to please Brahma. Brahma for some reason, despite being literally one of the most epic Hindu Gods, couldn’t foresee his folly and casually granted HK some wishes. If you’re a fan of LoTR, this is one of those Lord of the Nazgûl situations. 

According to wikipedia (I warned you I’m not a Mythology expert) Brahma granted that (1) HK could not be killed by any being created by Brahma (this is key because remember Brahma is the creator of all things in the universe- except Vishnu and Shiva) , (2) he would not die inside or outside, (3) by day or night, (4) by any weapon, on the earth or in the sky, (5) by men or beasts, deities or demons. Basically HK became immortal, and was of course inevitably driven corrupt by this immortality. Great job Brahma. 

Back to HK heading towards child-legend and his own defiant son Prahlad- weapon of choice in hand. Suddenly the skies roared, thunder clapped, and BOOM, in front of HK appeared Vishnu’s most epic reincarnation yet- Narasingha- which literally means Man-Lion! For those of you not familiar, in Hindu Mythology, Vishnu reincarnated back to earth in mortal forms throughout time to come save man from his own follies, his more popular reincarnations being King Ram (from Diwali fame), Krishna (from all hippies ever fame) and Buddha (yep the same one from Buddhism).

Now Narasingha is a half-human, half-lion being (so not a man or beast- but both!)- NOT created by Brahma (reincarnation of the God Vishnu), arrives at DAWN (not day or night), picks up HK and takes him to the threshold of his house (not inside or outside), and RIPS his chest open with his Lion claws (not technically a weapon!). I mean talk about technical specifications to kill a bad guy. 

And thus, our protagonist, Prahlad, was saved. Good, once again, conquered evil, and all cosmic order was restored. 

So what does this have to do with Holi- the festival of colours? Welp! These days, night before Holi, most households burn a bonfire signifying Holika Dahan- the scorching of HK’s evil sister Holika. This is also referred to as Choti Holi- small holi. Followed by celebrations at dawn and throughout the following day of the victory of Narasingha, Man-Lion, over demon-king Hiranyakashyap- bad boy HK- the age old tale of good beats evil! 

It has since come to signify and symbolize many things- the arrival of spring, the harvesting of crops, the love shared by Krishna and his consort Radha.The colours themselves mean and represent many things, fertility, new beginnings, but you can google that stuff. 

For me, the colours represent India and its amazing people, because we really know how to go big, and celebrate in style!