There are many holidays and festivals in India. I will discuss the four important holidays of Holi, Diwali, Dussera and Basanto commemorated.

Holi: the festival of fire

The Hindu Festival of Fire, called Holi or Basaat, is celebrated

in India on the fifteenth day of the Luminous Half of the Moon, in the

Hindu month of Phalguna (March). Holi is a spring festival for

Hindus. It is celebrated before the monsoon, the great storms

they come every year.

Holi is a joyful holiday and is celebrated by Hindus from all over the world.

centuries. Boys and girls throw water pistols, sometimes large bombs

filled with saffron or red colored water. Hindu’s favorite

the colors are red, crimson and saffron.

In Bengal, the Holi festival is associated with the life of

Krishna, a Hindu god. In Bengal, colored powders are used

without water, for fun. Before feasting on

honor of Holi, the children take off their sportswear that

they cover themselves in red and dress in fresh and clean clothes. This

It is customary to exchange gifts in honor of this spring festival.

Diwali: the festival of lights

The Hindu New Year, Diwali, is celebrated on the last night of the

autumn, in October or November. It is a party that is

celebrated all over India. It comes at the end of the monsoon.

it rains, when the weather is pleasant and temperate, and it lasts five days.

For this festivity, the daughters return to the houses of their parents,

the houses are cleaned, the walls are decorated with designs drawn in white

rice flour water and then colored. Business account books are

new ones are closed and opened ceremoniously, new clothes are worn

and friends are entertained. Before the festival, special food is

prepared to be offered in Hindu temples.

In preparation for and in honor of this festival of clay lights

the saucers are filled with mustard oil and floating cotton wicks,

Giving a soft and bright light to homes. These lights are called

chirags, and they are placed on the window frames and roofs of houses;

along the roads, and on the banks of rivers and streams.

Women and girls who live in the sacred city of Banares, take

their chirags to the banks of the river Ganges. They light up in silence

them and put them in the river to float along the water. They wait

so that their mud boats float to the other side with the wicks

Still On If they stay on, it’s a sign of good luck.

The reason for the lights is to direct Lakshmi; goddess of

prosperity to every home. There are some versions of the origin.

of this festival In the northern part of India, it is associated

with the fall season and harvest. They believe that Lakshmi

returns to the plains and lowlands each autumn, after his stay in

high country during the summer months. She visits people’s houses.

on that night and you need the light to guide your way. By securing

that she reaches their homes ensure that their blessings

It will be big and significant.

Dussera: Rama’s Victories

During the ten days of the Festival of the Divine Mother, a parade is held

Featured in every city, town or village in North India.

The contest is presented for two hours each day, ten days in a

row.

This annual parade is called Ram Lila, based on the famous and

the sacred Hindu epic Ramayana, which consists of 24,000 stanzas.

The Ram Lila shows some events of the great epic that are

well known to all Hindus, adults and children. Every year the

people in India gather in the markets and look at the Ram Lila

with excitement as if they were seeing it for the first time. towns

compete to see who will put on the richest display of costumes and

Best music

The history of the contest mainly refers to the events of the wars.

between Rama, the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the

Preserve, and Ravan, the cruel demon of ten faces and twenty

hands, which threatened to conquer the earth below and the gods in

darling. Rama’s forces were under the command of General Hanuman,

a monkey. Hanuman led great victories over the enemies of humanity and

Gods. The most exciting part of the parade is a battle scene with

Hanuman.

The ten-day parade ends with the death of Ravana, who is

burned in effigy An image of the dead demon is made of bamboo and

colored paper, and placed on a platform and inflated with

Fireworks. The public kicks and this symbolizes

Rama’s victory over Ravana; good over evil.

Basanta: The First Day of Spring

On the first day of spring, in the Muslim calendar, Basanta is

celebrated.celebrated Basanta, which in Sanskrit means yellow, is the sacred

India’s color and is the symbol of spring. in this festival

they all wear yellow in parts of their clothing.

Hindu poets of old wrote poems about spring. many of

they went to Basanta, and somehow connected the arrival of

spring with Saraswati, the wife of Brahma, the goddess of the sixty-four

art and science.

On this holiday, the family fasts until noon and then they leave

to a field to have lunch and enjoy the outdoors. offering of

A white mango flower or any white flower is brought for Saraswati.

Thus begins the season when children and their parents like to fly

his flat-sized kites made of colored tissue paper and bamboo.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Millen, Nina, Children’s Festivals of Many Lands. New York: Friendship Press, 1964.

2. Dobler, Lavinia, Customs and Festivals in the World. New York: Fleet Publishing Co., 1962.

3. Gaer, Joseph, Holidays Around the World. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1953.