Holi 2021: Spiritual and scientific celebration

Namaste 🙏

India! when we think about India all we get in our mind is a life full of colors and festivals. Indians never fail to amaze us with different ways to celebrate seasons and changes happening with the changing seasons. They relate it with their God and several stories in order to give it a spiritual touch which increases the beauty and purity of the way of celebration. 

 

Traditionally, a Hindu festival, Holi is celebrated with much pomp and splendor on the full moon day of the month of Phalgun (around late February or March). It is largely celebrated in India and Nepal, along with parts of Sri Lanka. 

 

Happy Holi

Today, we are going to talk about one of the most Colorful celebrations on the entire globe - the festival of HOLI. We will talk about the spiritual as well as scientific aspects of this colorful festival. The festival of Holi is a mark of the end of winters and the beginning of the spring. It is celebrated to welcome the season of spring.

Holi is known by various names in various regions of the country such as - 'Holi', 'Hori' and 'Dolyatra' in western and northern parts of India,  'Hutashan Mahotsav' and 'Holika Dahan' in southwestern regions of India, and 'Kamadshan' in Southern India. As it welcomes the season of spring, it is also known as "Vasantotsav', 'Vasantagamanotsav'.

 

Spiritual

There are various stories associated with Holi, one of them being the story of Prahlada and Hiranyakashyap. According to this famous story of Holi, Hiranyakashyap was a powerful king who use to celebrate himself as God and wanted everyone to worship him like a god. Everyone in the kingdom was afraid of the king and thus willingly or forcefully followed his orders of worshiping him. On the other hand, Hiranyakaship's son Prahlada refused to worship him and started worshiping Lord Vishnu in his place.  Hiranyakashyap couldn't stand this and gave many punishments to his son Prahlada. All these punishments didn't affect Prahlada's faith in Lord Vishnu. After this Hiranyakashyap and his sister, Holika made a plan together that she would sit on the pyre with Prahlada.

 

Holika Dahan on the night of Holi

Holika had a special cloak garment (by the blessing of Lord Brahma) that protected her from getting harmed by fire. Taking advantage of this, Hiranyakashya asked Holika to wear that garment and sit in the bonfire with Prahlad in her lap. But when a fire roared, the garment flew from Holika and covered Prahlad. As Prahlad was covered with the cloak garment, the fire did no harm to him but Holika got burnt in the fire. This set a historical example of the victory of good over evil. On the day of Holika Dahan, a holy fire or bonfire is lit in which all kinds of evil, ego, and negativity are burnt.

The next day, we greet our loved ones with colors and enjoy the festival with dance, music, and delicious dishes. Pink, yellow, green, and red colors are strewn on the streets and people greet their friends and family members on this festival. 

Scientific

Mythologically apart, festival of holi has a great significance in scientific terms. During winter season, in earlier times and now too- many people did not take regular bath because of cold climate of winter. As they did not take regular bath, they were prone to develop skin allergies and infections due to deposition of bacteria on their outermost skin layer. Skin develops dryness and unwanted particles also get accumulated on the human body. This needs proper rinsing to avoid skin infections and allergies. 

Winter is the time of reproduction especially for plants and trees. So, they shed pollen grains which are carried away with wind and gets scattered all over the land and in air. If these pollens are inhaled by any human, it might cause severe sinus infections and other breathing problems.  And the pollens scattered on ground might also get carried away with air and cause breathing problems. 

Thus as a solution to this, two scientific methods have been developed by ancient Indians which is still followed in the form of festival we call Holi. On the day of holi, people gather in open land area, and clean the entire land and sweep off unwanted grass and pollens from the land and gather it in the centre of the land area. Then they put up wooden planks, cow dung, camphor,  dried grass, ghee, Shreefal (Dried coconut), etc on it and lit fire to it - this is called holika dahan or holi. This burns the pollens in the bonfire and in the air. Also, the fumes produced by such a huge flame of fire cleanses air with its smoke, which also kills the larva of some mosquitoes and bugs which are harmful to human or animal health. People gather around the holi or holika dahan and perform Hindu ritual of Pradakshina ( moving in circular pattern around the fire). With this, human body gets exposed to the heat of holi. This heat kills the deposited bacteria on human skin and prevents any possible infections because of the bacterial deposition.

At the end, before winding up the ritual, people are offered with Prasad (Oblation) of popped Jowar Dhani (Sorghum) and Date fruit. 

Jowar dhani as Prasad (Oblation) in Holi

Date fruit as Prasad (Oblation) in Holi

Jowar dhani is gluten free and contains a good amount of fibre which helps in good digestion,  thus avoiding problems like gas, bloating, constipation and diarrhea which is very common during this season. It also contains magnesium, copper and calcium which helps in making bones and tissues strong. Jowar also contains iron which helps to increase the hemoglobin in red blood cells. All this in turn improves our immunity. It helps to lower the LDL (low density lipid also known as the bad cholesterol) and in turn reduces the chances of heart diseases including stroke. It is gluten free.

Being a complex carbohydrate, jowar gets digested slowly and thus promotes gradual rise in blood sugar. This is why it is a great choice for people who suffer from diabetes and for the ones those who want to lose weight. It regulates blood sugar level.

 

Date fruit is consumed in dry form, hence its calorific value is very much higher than any other fresh fruits. Dates are rich source of fibres and antioxidants. Antioxidants protect your cells from free radicals, which are unstable molecules that may cause harmful reactions in your body and lead to diseases. Dates are helpful in lowering inflammatory markers, such as interleukin 6 (IL-6), in the brain, which lowers the risk of severe neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease. It is also helpful in reducing the activity of amyloid beta proteins, which can form plaques in the brain.

There are several other benefits of Jowar Dhani and date fruits which we will discuss in our other blog. 

From this, there is one thing that we can understand about ancient Indian festivals- there is always a scientific reason behind every festival, every celebration and all myths too. All we need to do is try to understand the scientific reasons behind the rituals, observe the time when celebrations happen,  try to understand how it happens and just be curious to search for the science behind Indian traditions. 

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Don't forget to check out our other blogs that might interest you and feel free to provide suggestions and submit requests in the comment section. 

A very happy holi to all of you. Stay safe.

Thank you. 

Namaste 🙏