Holi 2021: Mythological Stories That You Need To Know About This Festival

Tuesday, March 16, 2021, 15:03

Holi is a popular Indian festival celebrated by Hindus across the world. This year the festival falls on 29 March 2021. The festival is all about playing colours with loved ones and spreading the message of brotherhood and harmony. The two day festival holds a great significance among Hindus and is considered to be the last festival in a Hindu year.

If we talk about the origin of the festival then there are many mythological stories associated with it. Each story tells a mythological incident that led to the celebration of Holi. In case, you do not know about these mythological stories, then we are here to tell you about the same. Scroll down the article to read more.

1. The Story Of Prahlad And Holika

This is one of the most popular stories of how Holi started. Prahlad was the son of Hiranyakashipu, the demon king. Hirankashyapu gained the boon of immortality from Lord Brahma and thus, never considered Lord Vishnu as a deity. He always insulted Lord Vishnu and considered himself to be mightier and superior than Lord Vishnu. Prahlad on the other hand, was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. He often worshipped Vishnu and this agitated the king. He tried to stop Prahlad numerous times and often punished him but all in vain. Then one day he asked his sister Holika to sit into the blazing fire with Prahlad in her lap. Since Holika had a boon due to which the fire could never harm her, she sat with Prahlad in her lap while the fire was ignited around her. However, she forgot that the boon works only when she enters the fire all alone. Meanwhile, Prahlad kept reciting Lord Vishnu's name. The boon protected Prahlad instead and Holika was burnt alive. People rejoiced and celebrated the safe escape of Prahlad from the fire. They played colours and sang folk songs. Since that day, people have been observing Holika Dahan and Holi.

2. The Legend Of Lord Shiva And Kamdev

When Lord Shiva was in deep meditation and Gods wanted Him to come out of the meditation in order to save the world. But nobody could invoke Him. Now it was decided that one of the Gods would come forward to break the meditation of Lord Shiva. This is when Kamdeva came forward to break the meditation by hitting Lord Shiva with His bow. As soon as Kamdev hit Lord Shiva with His bow, Lord Shiva woke up and got agitated. He immediately burnt Kamdev to ashes. But then Lord Shiva was moved after seeing Kamdeva's wife Rati crying bitterly. He then revived Kamdev but gave Him only an imagery form to ensure that true love is felt mentally and emotionally rather than having a physical lust.

3. The Story Of Radha Krishna

Lord Krishna and Radha's legends are quite famous. According to some mythological stories, Lord Krishna in His childhood often whined about His dark complexion. He used to ask His mother why Radha is so fair-complexioned while He's so dark. To this, one fine day Yashoda suggested Lord Krishna to apply colours on Radha and change Her complexion to the colour of His choice. Hearing this, Lord Krishna happily smeared some colours on Radha's body and started playing with Her. It is said seeing Lord Krishna and Radha playing with colours, people began observing the festival of colours.

4. The Chasing Of Dhundhi

There was an ogress named Dhundhi who always troubled children. She used to live in the kingdom of Raghu and was always on her toes to trouble children and youngsters. One day the youngsters and children made a plan to chase her away by throwing colours and water. They all grew aggressive and chased her out of the kingdom and warned her never to come back. In order to acknowledge the prank of children, people started reminiscing about the prank by throwing colours and water on each other.