Holi - Spring festival

Holi:

Holi is know as spring festival and different other names in india and popularly known as vasanthostav or basanthostav.

Cultural Beliefs:

Holika who is sister of Hiranyakasapu an evil demon king on the name of her Holi was celebrated. Demon King Hiranyakasapu has a son who is devotee of his enemy lord Vishnu. Due to this he decided to kill prahlad by using holika burning power. One day he ordered his son to sit on his lap and holika in order to burn him. But due to prahlad devotion towards Lord Vishnu Instead of his death holika was burnt alive.

Every festival was introduced by Ancient Indians by keeping environment and health in mind. At this festival day a holy fire is burnt known as Holika Dahan. Many herbal or medicinal tree barks or branches and dried cow dung were used for this holy fire.

How to prepare Natural Colors?

• Use Henna tree,flamboyant tree leaves for green.
• Use Turmeric+Lemon juice,chickpea flour,golden shower tree flowers,Marigold flowers,Yellow Chrysanthemums flowers,Babul tree flowers,Dried Bael fruit for different shades of yellow.
• Use Red Sandal Wood Powder,Dry red hibiscus flowers,seeds of the achiote trees,lime powder will give different shades of red.
• Use Jacaranda flowers,Blue berries,blue Hibiscus flowers will give blue color.
• Use Orchid tree flowers for pink.
• Use beetroot for dark red & blackish color.
• Use Flame of the Forest tree flowers,Night-flowering Jasmine flowers for orange color.
• Use Silk Cotton Tree flower petals or Saffron flowers for saffron color.
• Use Tea Leaves for brown.
• Use black grapes or boil amla in iron vessel will give black color.
• These Natural color can be obtain by boiling the above ingredients or soaking them in water over night or juicing them. These natural colors will keeps skin healthy and fights against virus,bacteria which destroy the health.

Scientific Reasons:

• Holi is a festival which indicates a seasonal change from Winter to Summer. By inhaling this holy smoke malaria, skin diseases causing germs and virus will be destroyed. Heating the atmosphere before sun enters to summer and sending holy smoke to the atmosphere will destroy all bacteria in the surroundings. By circumambulating around the holy fire 60C or 140F of heat will touches our body and kills all viruses and bacteria which are already inside our body.
• But nowadays people are not using herbal or medicinal trees in fire, instead they are using rubber items likes tubes, tires and other plastics which are very harmful to our health and pollute the surroundings.
• Holi is the festival of spreading colors. Ancient Indians used natural colors obtained from herbal tree flowers like Neem, Turmeric, Sandalwood, etc.. Especially they used flowers of the tree called as 'Flame of the Forest, Bastard Teak, Parrot Tree'. These flowers are crushed to extract juice and filled with bamboo stems which are used as syringes. This juice was red in color and called as Vasanth. It will sprayed on all people for fun and enjoyment. This herbal juice will increase skin glow and radiance which leads to good health. According to Ayurveda this herbal juice will control blood pressure and eliminates eye diseases when it touches our skin.
• But nowadays people are using chemical colors in the place of natural colors. These chemical colors consist of Boric acid, Potassium dicromate, alum and Zinc chloride which harms the health and eyesight. These chemicals will enter into the body through the skin pores when we use artificial colors. When the body is healthy these will be flushed out but metals like lead, tin will cause blood cancer which is very dangerous. Zinc chloride will cause rashes on the body. Potassium decrement will cause several skin problems.
• Don't use colors which are made from chemicals.It is very dangerous to children when compared with adults. Immediate precautions should be taken care after using chemical colors. Please save health and environment by using natural colors.