1. Apagen Celebrating the festival……
Colors with Happiness
Wish you all a very happy holi
www.apagen.com
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2. Holi (Hindi: होली, Nepali: होली) is a religious spring festival
celebrated by Hindus as a festival of colours.
It is primarily observed in India and Nepal. It is also
observed by the minority Hindus in Bangladesh and
Pakistan as well in countries with large Indic diaspora
populations following Hinduism, such as Suriname,
Malaysia, Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago,
the United Kingdom, the United States, Mauritius, and
Fiji.
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3. Other Names of Holi
Holi is also known as Phagwah (Assamese: ফাকুৱা),
Festival of Colours, or Doḷajātra (Oriya: ଦ ୋଳଯୋତ୍ରୋ)
in Odisha, and as Dol Jatra (Bengali: দ ালযাত্রা) or
Basantotsav ("spring festival") (Bengali: বসন্তাৎসব)
in West Bengal and Assam.
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4. Holi is of particular significance in the Braj region, which
includes locations traditionally connected to the Lord
Krishna: Mathura, Vrindavan, Nandagaon, and Barsana,
which become tourist destinations during the season of Holi.
As per the Hindu calendar, Holi is celebrated on the Phalgun
Purnima which comes in February or March in the Gregorian
Calendar.
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5. Significance of holi
he grew arrogant and attacked the Heavens and the Earth. He demanded that people stop worshipping Gods
and start praising respectfully to him.
According to this belief, Hiranyakashipu's own son, Prahlada, was a devotee of Vishnu. In spite of several
threats from Hiranyakashipu, Prahlada continued offering prayers to Vishnu. He was poisoned by
Hiranyakashipu, but the poison turned to nectar in his mouth. He was ordered to be trampled by elephants yet
remained unharmed. He was put in a room with hungry, poisonous snakes and survived. All of
Hiranyakashipu's attempts to kill his son failed. Finally, he ordered young Prahlada to sit on a pyre in the lap
of Holika, Hiranyakashipu's demoness sister, who also could not die because she had a boon preventing her
from being burned by fire. Prahlada readily accepted his father's orders, and prayed to Lord Vishnu to keep
him safe. When the fire started, everyone watched in amazement as Holika burnt to death, while Prahlada
survived unharmed. The salvation of Prahlada and burning of Holika is celebrated as Holi.
In Mathura, where Krishna grew up, the festival is celebrated for 16 days (until Rangpanchmi) in
commemoration of the divine love of Radha for Krishna. The festivities officially usher in spring, the
celebrated season of love.
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The word Holi originated from "Holika", sister of Hiranyakashipu.
The festival of Holi is celebrated because of a story in the old Hindu religion. In
Vaishnavism, Hiranyakashipu is the great king of demons, and he had been
granted a boon by Brahma, which made it almost impossible for him to be killed.
The boon was due to his long penance, after which he had demanded that he not
be killed "during day or night; inside the home or outside, not on earth or in the sky;
neither by a man nor an animal; neither by astra nor by shastra". Consequently,
6. Rituals
The earliest textual reference to the celebration of Holi is found in the 7th
century Sanskrit drama, Ratnavali. Certainly there are perennial rituals
attached to Holi: the first is smearing of coloured powder on each other, and
throwing coloured and scented water at each time. On the first day of this
festival, Hindus participate in a public bonfire. Prior to the event, men
prepare for this by collecting extra wood. The fire itself is lit near midnight,
as the moon rises. The main custom of Holi is the use of the colored
powders and water on others. This is why Holi is given the name “Festival of
Colors.”
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7. Modern issuesSynthetic colors
Natural colors were used in the past to play safe Holi by applying turmeric, sandalwood paste, extracts of flowers and leaves.
As the spring-blossoming trees that once supplied the colors used to celebrate Holi have become more rare, chemically
produced industrial dyes have been used to take their place in almost all of urban India. Due to the commercial availability of
various attractive color pigments, slowly the natural colors are replaced by synthetic colors. As a result it has caused, mild to
severe symptoms of skin irritation and inflammation.
In 2001, a fact sheet was published by the groups Toxics link and Vatavaran based in Delhi on the chemical dyes used in
the festival. They found safety issues with all three forms in which the Holi colors are produced: pastes, dry colors and water
colors.
Their investigation found some toxic chemicals with some potentially severe health impacts. The black powders were found
to contain lead oxide which can result in renal failure. The prussian blue used in the blue powder has been associated with
contact dermatitis, while the copper sulphate in the green has been documented to cause eye allergies, puffiness of the
eyes, or temporary blindness.
A Natural Holi in Pune, an alternative to synthetic colors
The colorant used in the dry colors, also called gulals, was found to be toxic, with heavy metals causing asthma, skin
diseases and temporary blindness. Both of the commonly used bases—asbestos or silica—are associated with health
issues.
They reported that the wet colors might lead to skin discolouration and dermatitis due to their use of color concentrate
gentian violet.
Malachite green - another synthetic bluish-green dye has been well documented to be responsible in Holi festival for many of
the severe forms of eye irritation in Delhi.
Lack of control over the quality and content of these colors is a problem, as they are frequently sold by vendors who do not
know their origin.
The report galvanized a number of groups into promoting more natural celebrations of Holi. Development Alternatives, Delhi
and Kalpavriksh, Pune, The CLEAN India campaign and Society for Child Development, through its Avacayam Cooperative
Campaign have both launched campaigns to help children learn to make their own colors for Holi from safer, natural
ingredients. Meanwhile, some commercial companies such as the National Botanical Research Institute have begun to
market "herbal" dyes, though these are substantially more expensive than the dangerous alternatives. However, it may be
noted that many parts of rural India have always resorted to natural colours (and other parts of festivities more than colors)
due to availability reasons.
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8. Environmental impact
An alleged environmental issue related to the celebration of Holi is the traditional
Holika Dahan bonfire, which is believed to contribute to deforestation. A local tabloid
had a view published that 30,000 bonfires each burning approximately 100 kg of
wood are lit in one season.[16] Several methods of preventing this consumption of
wood have been proposed, including the replacement of wood with waste material or
lighting of a single fire per community, rather than multiple smaller fires. However, the
idea of lighting waste material antagonizes large sections of a certain community who
take it as a Western attack to their cultures and traditions citing several examples of
similar festivities elsewhere. There is also concern about the large scale wastage of
water and water-pollution due to synthetic colors during Holi celebration.
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Modern issues
9. Massage from Apagen Solutions
Holi is the time to develop understanding and love for
each other. Here, is a platform for you all to renew your
friendship and to express heartiest love by scribbling a
beautiful Holi message for loved ones.
May you have the most blessed holi festival than you
ever had. May it be full of fun, joy and love. May you be
as colorful as the festival itself or even more. Lets all
have lots of fun.
By: Gaurav Kumar, Prateek Jaiswal and Team
Play Safe
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