Holi 2024 - The Festival of Colors in India
Veronica di pilla
In March, the Holi festival is celebrated, an unmissable experience in India full of colors, entertainment and food. You will see enthusiastic children in the streets shooting themselves with squirt guns and colored bombs together with the rest of the family because almost everyone has the day off and spends it celebrating with their friends or their families. There will be many parties to join in, especially in northern cities like Mumbai or Delhi. What more can you ask for during your trip to India?
Date: March 24 & 25, 2024
Location: All over India, mainly in Delhi, Jaipur, Mathura and Agra.
The Holi Festival or Festival of Colors, is a major event that takes place every year throughout India and was created as a celebration of man's inner rebirth. It is a hymn to joy in which all sorrows are abandoned to embrace life in all its beauty. It is one of the most colorful and vibrant festivals in the country, where each of the participants can free themselves from all limitations. To the rhythm of the music, colored powders mixed with water are thrown on the people, who celebrate it by singing and dancing in the streets.
A Little History…
"Holi" a term that is associated with the act of "burning" something bad. In fact, the rites of the festival begin by lighting a large bonfire on the day of the first full moon in March. This rite allegorically wants to destroy all forms of evil, in fact, the term Holi derives from the name "Holika", associated with a demon from the ancient Hindu tradition and which recalls a ceremony that celebrated the defeat of evil for good, the end of the winter season and the entrance of the Earth into the fertile period of spring.
The Celebration
The Holi festival lasts only one night and the entire next day and never takes place on a specific date, since the festival begins on the night of the first full moon in March, following the rules of the Hindu calendar. Normally, it almost always takes place between the end of February and the beginning of March.
In 2024, the celebration of the Holi Festival falls between March 24 and 25. The night before the full moon bonfires are lit and at that moment each person must ritually deposit all the pain and sorrows that weigh on his soul. The next day, the day when the full moon occurs, people go out to the streets to joyfully live the ritual of color.
A container full of barley seeds from the new harvest is placed under the bonfire and, while the fire roasts them, people eat them. It is also customary to make predictions about the next harvest, based on the movement of the flames of the pyre or the state of the seeds after roasting, according to popular tradition.
The Perfect Places to Celebrate
The Festival of Colors is celebrated throughout India. Normally, the greatest excitement and involvement is felt in North India, and more specifically in the Golden Triangle, in the cities of Rajasthan, between Delhi, Jaipur and Agra.
The celebrations are more intense and joyful than those that take place in the south of the country, where the rituals are more intimate and are based on the religious aspect of the celebrations in the temples; In any case, the festival of colors in India is celebrated everywhere. However, each region of India celebrates Holi differently, according to its own customs.
Rangotsav (Braj ki Holi)
Holi is a festival like this, but there is a festival in Braj - a festival in which the favored deities of the people also participate. Holi is celebrated only for one day in the world, but as soon as Falgun arrives in Braj, abir and gulal start flying in the air. The conch shell of the Holi festival of Braj, which lasts for forty days, starts from Basant Panchami. On the day of Vasant Panchami i.e. Saraswati Puja, Lord Krishna plays Holi with his devotees in Vrindavan. On this day in Braj, by offering Gulal to Thakurji in the temples, Gulal is also poured on the devotees as Prasad. Devotees from all over the world have started arriving in Braj to enjoy the Holi festival.
On February, along with Basant Panchami, a grand festival of colors has started in Mathura-Vrindavan Braj Mandal. Mathura, Vrindavan and Barsana Holi is world famous where Lord Krishna and Radha plays with Friends and Gopis. Mathura Holi Dates 2024 Schedule, Calendar & Phoolwalon Ki Holi Vrindavan...
17 March 2024, Sunday
Barsana Laddu Holi : Sriji Temple Barsana
18 March 2024, Monday
Barsana Lathmar Holi : ( Main Holi Barsana )
19 March 2024, Tuesday
Nandgaon Holi : Lathmar Holi in Nand Bhawan
20 March 2024, Wednesday
Vrindavan Holi : Phoolwalon Ki Holi Bankey Bihari Temple, Rangbhari Ekadashi Holi in Vrindavan
20 March 2024, Wednesday
Mathura Holi : Special Event at Birthplace of Lord Krishna Temple and all over Mathura
21 March 2024, Thursday
Gokul Holi : Gokul Holi and Raman Reti Visit
24 March 2024, Sunday
Holika Dahan ( Holi Fire) : Dwarkadhish Temple Dola and Mathura Vishram Ghat, Banke Bihari Vrindavan
25 March 2024, Monday
Dhulandi Holi : Dwarkadheesh Tesu Flowers / Abir Gulal Holi and Colorful Water Holi in Brij