70 Interesting Facts About Holi (Festival of Colours)

Facts About Holi: Holi is an important Indian and Nepali festival celebrated in the spring. This festival is celebrated on the full moon of Phalgun month according to the Hindu calendar.

Amazing Facts About Holi for Kids

• The festival of Holi is a two-day festival.
• Sweets, food and drinks are also shared during the festival.
• The Holi also marks the demise of “Putana” who tried to kill Lord Krishna.
• It is a national festival in India and people from all the states celebrate it.
• The word Holi is derived from the word “Holika”, the demonic sister of King Hiranyakashipu.
• Holi is also celebrated in Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Pakistan, and the Philippines.
• The festival of Holi is celebrated for at least 16 days in the Brag region of India where Krishna was born.
• The festival of colors is also popular for a saying “Bura na mano, Holi hai!” which means “do not mind, it’s holi.
• The exact date of the festival is determined by the Hindu Calendar and its arrival varies on the Gregorian calendar.
• The first day is known as Holika Dahan or Chhoti Holi and the second as Rangwali Holi, Dhuleti, Dhulandi or Dhulivandan.
• Occurrence: It is celebrated after the full moon in the month of ‘Phalguna’ which generally falls between February and March.
• Holi commemorates the victory of Good over Evil and Holi is celebrated on the following day after Holika was burned in bonfire.
• People generally tend to gather and celebrate this festival in open as it provides a suitable environment for the use of colors and water.

Historical Facts About Holi

• The festival of Holi is predominantly a festival of fun. People spend a lot of their time during the festival days engaging in fun activities.
• India has long been plagued by superstitions and untouchability. Holi was the first festival which started preaching the message of equality and brotherhood in the society.
• Kids start using water balloon and water pistols a week or 10 days before Holi. They hide and target the by-passers with balloons filled with colored water and water pistols.
• Legend has that the evil king – Hiranyakashyap – forbade his son Prahlad from worshiping one of the Hindu gods – Lord Vishnu. However, Prahlad worshiped Vishnu despite his father’s denial.
• The festival of Holi is celebrated for at least 16 days in Mathura and the Braj region of India where Krishna was born. Sweets, Gujiya, food and drinks are also shared during the festival.
• The second day of the festival of Holi which is also referred as “Rangwali Holi” is the main day when people play with wet and dry colors. People chase each other in an attempt to color one another.
• Wearing white is generally deemed ‘apt’, for the colors can better ‘pop’ on a blank canvas. However, practicality-wise stick to something you might not wear again, as the colors do not come off easy.
• The Holika bonfire is a place where people gather and do their religious rituals. People during their religious rituals ask for forgiveness from the god and pray that their evil should come to an end.
• The festival signifies the arrival of spring, the end of winter, the blossoming of love, and for many a festive day to meet others, play and laugh, forget and forgive, and repair broken relationships.

Unknown Facts About Holi 

• Holi is a festival of fun and colors for children. Children of all age groups gather and celebrate the festival with oneness and vigor. They throw dry colors and wet colored liquids on each other and family member.
• Holi is celebrated by the minority Hindu population in Pakistan. Community events by Hindus have been reported by Pakistani media in various cities such as Karachi, Hazara, Rawalpindi, Sindh, Hyderabad, Multan and Lahore.
• A special delight that people make at their home is Gujiya. It is a stuffed sweet delicacy where the stuffing consists of dry fruits and other sweet items. It is very popular and people enjoy the delight to their full extent.
• Men are allowed to throw colours and drench their female counterparts in water. For a society as rigid as India, pouring water over an unknown female is unthinkable for 364 days of the year. But again, Holi isn’t just another day!
• Beware of this drink: Holi is also popular for the consumption of an intoxicating article – Bhang. This ingredient is mixed into drinks and sweets and is largely consumed by many during the festival. Bhang is made from cannabis leaves.
• The festival starts on the night before Holi when people gather and start a bonfire. The bonfire is lit up between 8 pm and midnight. People gather around the fire to watch it while eating their favorite food items, and talk with friends.
• Rati performs her own meditative asceticism for forty days, upon which Shiva understands, forgives out of compassion and restores the god of love. This return of the god of love, is celebrated on the 40th day after Vasant Panchami festival as Holi.
• Synthetic vs natural colors: The use of synthetic colors during the festival of Holi is a concern for some people. However, many prefer playing with water and some homemade natural colors. Natural colors are derived from indigo, sunflower, and marigold flowers.

Lesser Known Facts About Holi

• Water is a big part of the event as many people use water balloons and engage in interesting water fights with their family and friends. A lot of different colors are involved and it’s a great time for everyone as every one irrespective of their age participates.
• Happy Holi... Rightly called the festival of colours and the festival of love, Holi has won hearts not only in Asia, but even in the farthest corners of Europe and the United States. Germany even went to the extent of conducting a big open-air music festival to celebrate Holi.
• Good for bonding: The festival of Holi, like Diwali, is a significant one in India and Nepal. It is a great occasion for people from different religious communities, castes, colors and creeds to come together and strengthen their bonds, and also repair their broken relationships.
• Holi celebrated at Barsana is unique in the sense that here women chase men away with sticks. Males also sing provocative songs in a bid to invite the attention of women. Women then go on the offensive and use long staves called lathis to beat the men, who protect themselves with shields.
• Holi has become the grand ambassador that preached the ultimate principle that Hinduism try to preach- 7 billion people on different paths, all leading to one God! This is on full display on Holi when people from different countries and religions go out and celebrate this festival of love.
• The spring season, during which the weather changes, is believed to cause viral fever and cold. The playful throwing of natural coloured powders, called gulal has a medicinal significance: the colours are traditionally made of neem, kumkum, haldi, bilva, and other medicinal herbs prescribed by Āyurvedic doctors.
• Holi is the only day Indian kids have official permission to get filthy! Indian parents are notorious for their obsession with cleanliness, especially so in the case of their children. But, come Holi, all that flies out of the window. They can drown each other in colours, use spray gun, water balloons and what-nots!
• The festival of Holi is celebrated by Hindus all over the world. People of Nepali origin also celebrate it in different parts of the world. With every passing year, the festival is being welcomed across the world in many forms and people find great relief and satisfaction celebrating it with their friends and family.
• Different names of Holi in various states of India: Uttar Pradesh – Lathmar Holi; Uttarakhand – Khadi Holi; Punjab – Hola Mohalla; West Bengal – Basant Utsav and Dol Jatra; Goa – Shigmo; Manipur – Yaosang; Kerala – Manjal Kuli; Bihar – Phaguwa; Assam – Phakuwah; Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh – Rang Panchami; Rajasthan – Royal Holi.

Fun Facts About Holi Festival

• It is a day to celebrate youth! You will find wild hordes of youngsters in cars and bikes roaming the streets with water guns and balloons filled with waters screening for similar groups. And once they meet, the street fight begins! And any unassuming youngster caught smack in the middle normally bears the brunt of the colorful assault!
• Due to the commercial availability of attractive pigments, slowly the natural colours are replaced by synthetic colours. As a result, it has caused mild to severe symptoms of skin irritation and inflammation. Lack of control over the quality and content of these colours is a problem, as they are frequently sold by vendors who do not know their source.
• The legendary significance of Holi is linked to Shiva in yoga and deep meditation, goddess Parvati wanting to bring back Shiva into the world, seeks help from the Hindu god of love called Kamadeva on Vasant Panchami. The love god shoots arrows at Shiva, the yogi opens his third eye and burns Kama to ashes. This upsets both Kama's wife Rati (Kamadevi) and his own wife Parvati.
• Other legend behind the origin of Holi is that Lord Krishna as a baby was poisoned by the breast milk of Putana and thus he developed the characteristic blue color of his skin. Krishna was not sure if fair skinned Radha and other girls would like him. Thus he approached Radha and colored her face in some colors. Radha accepted Krishna despite the blue color of his skin and since that day the festival of Holi is celebrated.
• In a world filled with religious fanatics, you will hardly find another religious festival celebrated universally, cutting across religious and national barriers. It is as if the colours have the power to melt away social, cultural and religious differences. During evening time Holi Milan Samaroh`s are held at a central place in different cities in which people in clean clothes are gathered in a fare and embrace each other.
• Legend has that the evil king Hiranyakashyap become increasingly strong through his devotion to God and asked his people to address him as god or bear severe consequences. Hiranyakashipu’s son Prahlad was an ardent follower of Lord Vishnu and he survived the conspiracies of Holika who tried to trick him and kill him through bonfire and his father who tried to take away his life many times. Prahlad was each time saved by Lord Vishnu.
• An alleged environmental issue related to the celebration of Holi is the traditional Holika bonfire, which is believed to contribute to deforestation. Activists estimate Holika causes 30,000 bonfires every year, with each one burning approximately 100 kilograms (220.46 lbs) of A number of Holi-inspired social events have also surfaced, particularly in Europe and the United States, often organised by companies as for-profit or charity events with paid admission, and with varying scheduling that does not coincide with the actual Holi festival.

Friends, hope you liked this post on 70 Interesting Facts About Holi (Festival of Colours). If you liked this post, then you must share it with your friends and Subscribe to us to get updates from our blog. Friends, If you liked our site FactsCrush.Com, then you should Bookmark it as well.