Holi: What, Why, When, How

What it is

Holi is the spring festival of the full moon of Phalguna, at the turn from winter to spring. It has two parts. On the full-moon evening, Holika Dahan, families and neighbours light a bonfire, pray around it and roast the new grain. The next morning, Dhulandi or Rangwali Holi, everyone plays with coloured powder and coloured water, visits friends and shares sweets.

Holi is kept differently across India. In Braj, the land of Krishna around Mathura, Vrindavan and Barsana, it is kept for several days, village after village, with the "stick Holi" of Barsana, a mock fight in which the women drive off the men of Nandgaon with long sticks. In Bengal and Odisha the full-moon day is Dol Jatra, when Radha and Krishna are carried on a decorated swing and smeared with coloured powder (abir). In parts of South India the full moon is Kama Dahanam, which remembers Shiva burning Kama, the god of desire. Maharashtra and Goa call it Shimga or Shigmo.

Holi is also a day to forgive and to begin again: old quarrels are set aside and everyone, young and old, plays together.

Why it is kept

Prahlada and the fire. The Vishnu Purana (book 1, chapters 17 to 20) and the Bhagavata Purana (book 7) tell of Prahlada, the young son of the asura king Hiranyakashipu. The king demanded that everyone worship him alone, but Prahlada kept praying to Vishnu. The king tried again and again to harm his son, and each time Prahlada stayed safe. In the Vishnu Purana the king orders a great fire built around the boy, and Prahlada says: “Father, this fire, though blown up by the winds, burneth me not” (H. H. Wilson's translation). In the Bhagavata's telling, Vishnu at last came out of a pillar as Narasimha, half man and half lion, to protect him.

Holika. The telling that families tell at the bonfire adds the king's sister Holika. She tried to burn Prahlada by sitting in the fire with him, but the fire spared Prahlada and consumed Holika. This part of the story comes from later popular tellings, widely told in North India, not from the Vishnu or Bhagavata Purana. The bonfire is named after her, and families light it to remember that faith and goodness outlast harm.

Krishna, Radha and the colours (Braj tradition). In Braj, Holi belongs to Radha, Krishna and Balarama. The colours recall the play of Krishna, Radha and the gopis, which Braj sings in its Holi songs.

Kama and Shiva (South Indian tradition). In Tamil Nadu and other parts of the South the full moon recalls how Kama, the god of desire, disturbed Shiva's meditation so that Shiva would marry Parvati, and how Shiva's third eye burned him to ash. His wife Rati mourned him, and a voice from heaven promised that he would have his form again when Shiva married Parvati. Kalidasa's Kumarasambhava (cantos 3 and 4) tells this story in poetry.

The new harvest. Holi also marks the spring harvest of wheat and barley in North India. Ears of the new grain are roasted in the Holika fire and shared. The old texts call the festival Holaka.

The texts behind the story

• Vishnu Purana, book 1, chapters 17–20 (Prahlada). H. H. Wilson (tr.), The Vishnu Purana (London: John Murray, 1840). Wilson died 1860: public domain. Quoted verbatim from chapter 17. (book 1, chs. 17–20, pp. 126–146; the quotation, ch. 17, p. 129 (leaf n227))
• A Prose English Translation of Srimadbhagavatam, Books VII–XII bound in one, edited and published by Manmatha Nath Dutt (Calcutta: Elysium Press, 1895–96) (Book VII, chapters IV–X (Prahlada); chapter VIII, p. 40 (leaf n231): the Lord appears from the pillar as the man-lion)
• The Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India, by W. Crooke, new edition, vol. II (Westminster: Archibald Constable, 1896) (ch. VI, 'The Holi: its origin', p. 313 (leaf n336): the modern North Indian telling of Holika, the king's sister, who tried to burn Prahlada and was burnt herself)
• F. S. Growse, Mathurá: A District Memoir, 3rd edition (Allahabad: North-Western Provinces and Oudh Government Press, 1883): the Holi kept for several days at different places in Braj; the mock fight at Barsana with long bamboos; Radha, Krishna and Balarama as the divinities remembered at Holi. Growse died 1893: public domain. Summarised in our own words. (pp. 91–93 (leaves n120–n122) and p. 101 (leaf n130); title page leaf n6)
• Holaka as the old name of the festival (Jaimini and Sabara, the Kathaka Grhya Sutra), and the Bengali Dolayatra on the full moon. Read in P. V. Kane, History of Dharmasastra, vol. 5, part 1 (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1958). Kane died 1972: cited, not quoted. (vol. 5, part 1, pp. 237–241)
• The Birth of the War-God (Kumarasambhava), a poem by Kalidasa, translated into English verse by Ralph T. H. Griffith (London: Wm. H. Allen, 1853) (Canto III, 'The Death of Love', pp. 21–32 (Kama burned, p. 31, leaf n44); canto IV, 'Reti's Lament', pp. 33–39 (the voice from heaven, p. 38, leaf n51))

When it is kept

Holi of colours (Dhulandi) is the day after Holika Dahan, so the bonfire's rule decides both days. Holika Dahan (engine id holika-dahan) is lit on Phalguna Purnima, in pradosh, the evening after sunset at your location, once Bhadra has ended. Bhadra, also called Vishti, is a half-tithi that the texts on festival rules keep clear of the fire. If Bhadra covers the evening but ends before midnight, the fire is lit after Bhadra ends. If Bhadra lasts past midnight and Purnima continues on the next day for three and a half watches after sunrise, the fire moves to the next evening. If Bhadra lasts past midnight and Purnima does not last that long, the fire is lit on the first evening, in pradosh, inside Bhadra but outside the part of it called its head (mukha); the app also shows the part called its tail (puchha) when that falls at night. If Purnima is in neither evening's pradosh, the fire is lit on the later evening, and the app also shows the night before, which the Dharmasindhu gives. These are the rules of the Nirnayasindhu and the Dharmasindhu as Smarta panchangs apply them. In India, when the Government of India holiday list and the Rashtriya Panchang give another day, the app shows that day too, with their names, for the years whose lists the app holds. The app shows the time window for the fire.

The date, from the calendar engine

• Holi 2027: Holika Dahan falls on Monday, March 22, 2027 in Washington DC (computed for this city). The date is the same in New Delhi.

The date depends on your city. Every city we cover is on the year page.

Traditions and regional customs

• Smarta (Nirnayasindhu): Holika Dahan on Phalguna Purnima in pradosh, after Bhadra; colours the next day
• North Indian purnimanta: the day of colours is Chaitra Krishna Pratipada, the first day of Chaitra
• Braj: Holi celebrations for weeks before the full moon
• Bengali and Odia: Dol Jatra on the full-moon day itself
• Tamil: Kama Dahanam (Kaman Pandigai) on the full moon
• Marathi and Konkani: Shimga and Shigmo

Why the day can differ

Because pradosh and the end of Bhadra are local times, Holika Dahan can fall on different dates in different cities, and in some years a city abroad keeps the fire a day before or after India. When Bhadra lasts past midnight, panchangs give different times: in pradosh inside Bhadra but outside its head, in its tail (Bhadra puchha), or after Bhadra ends, so a temple may light the fire at any of these times. The app shows the first two as time windows and the end of Bhadra in a note. In some years the Government of India holiday list and the Rashtriya Panchang give a day other than the rule above; in India the app shows their day too, for the years whose lists it holds.

Traditions differ on the day of colours too. Bengali and Odia families keep Dol on the full-moon day itself, by their own calendars, so in some years Dol falls on the day of the bonfire, not on the day of colours; the app does not compute the Dol day. Abroad, community Holi events are often held on the nearest weekend, and open fires need local permission; many families light a lamp at home instead, or a small fire in a metal fire bowl outdoors where local rules allow it.

How to keep it at home

1. Before the evening, prepare a plate with water, kumkum, rice, flowers, turmeric, a coconut, raw cotton thread, sweets, and ears of new wheat or barley or some chickpeas. Join the community bonfire, or light a lamp at home, or a small fire in a metal fire bowl outdoors where local rules allow it.
2. Before the fire is lit, worship it: sprinkle water, offer kumkum, rice and flowers, and wind the raw cotton thread around the pile three or seven times while walking around it. Remember Prahlada and pray to Vishnu as Narasimha.
3. Light the fire within the time window shown in the app. Walk around it, offer grains and the coconut into it, and roast the ears of new grain to share as prasad. Keep children and loose clothing well back from the flames.
4. Prayers often said at the fire are the prayers of Prahlada and to Narasimha, the Vishnu Sahasranama and the mantra "Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya".
5. Next morning, begin by offering a little colour to Krishna and Radha or to your family's deity, and touch the feet of elders with a pinch of colour. Then play with family and friends.
6. Play kindly and safely: use skin-safe or home-made colours, keep colour away from eyes and mouths, ask before you colour someone, and leave alone anyone who does not want to play. Oil the skin and hair beforehand so the colour washes off easily.
7. In the afternoon, bathe, wear clean clothes and visit friends and relatives with sweets. In Bengali and Odia homes, Dol Jatra is kept with a swing for Radha and Krishna and offerings of abir.

Fasting

Holi is mainly a feast. Some families fast on the full-moon day until the Holika puja in the evening. Gaudiya Vaishnava families, who keep the full moon as Gaura Purnima, the birth of Chaitanya, fast until moonrise. Anyone who is pregnant, unwell, diabetic, elderly or on regular medicine should keep a light fast, or none, and talk to a doctor first.

Food

Gujiya, sweet dumplings filled with khoya and dry fruit, are the sweet of Holi in North India, with malpua, dahi bhalla, mathri, namak pare and cool thandai made with milk, almonds and fennel. Rajasthan makes kanji vada, and Maharashtra puran poli. The roasted new grain from the fire is shared as prasad.

For children

Little Prahlada loved Vishnu and prayed to him every day. His father, the proud king, did not like it at all. The king's sister Holika sat in a fire with Prahlada, to harm him. But the fire did not touch Prahlada, and Holika's trick did not work. That is why families light a bonfire on the night before Holi, and the next morning they play with bright colours, just as Krishna played colours with his friends in Braj.

Something to do together

Make natural colours together with a grown-up: turmeric mixed with gram flour for yellow, beetroot juice for pink, and crushed spinach for green. Paint flowers or handprints on an old sheet of paper or cloth with them.

Sources

• Panchang engine rules holika-dahan and holi (packages/panchang/data/festivals.json), with the sources each rule lists, including the Nirnayasindhu (Kamalakara Bhatta, 1612) and the Dharmasindhu (Kashinatha Upadhyaya, 1790) for the Bhadra rule, and the Government of India holiday list and the Rashtriya Panchang for the official day.
• H. H. Wilson (tr.), The Vishnu Purana (London, 1840), book 1, chapters 17–20. Public domain.
• Vaisnava Events Calculation in GCAL (GCal algorithm documentation, 2008), test 1.5.4: Gaura Purnima on the full moon that ends the month the Vaishnava calendar calls Govinda (Phalguna).
• Wikipedia, "Holi" (background on the full moon of Phalguna and regional customs).

Related guides

• Vasant Panchami (Saraswati Puja)