This festival is celebrated to mark the arrival of spring and welcome other festivals, This festival is about the victory of good over evil. Although it is traditionally a Hindu festival, Like many other festivals in India and Nepal it also signifies the victory of good over evil. This festival is also associated with ancient mythology, there is a legend of King Hiranyakashipu, with whom this festival of color is associated. One more mythological story associated with this festival, that is the divine love between Lord Krishna and Radha. Here I am not going into detail about those stories but their importance and how we celebrate it in the present day. Are there any chances to make it environmentally friendly? As I have mentioned in its title it is the festival of color, love, and health. why we are making it complicated and toxic?

If we consider this festival as a health and wellness point of view Holi is played in the Spring Season, which is a period between the end of winter and the beginning of summer. In the countries like India and Nepal during the winter season, it is quite hard to take a regular bath so often develop some skin problems lead to even severe infections. This needs cleaning or cleansing therapy is needed. The science of using natural colors like turmeric or neem leaves is to cleanse the body playing with the color and later properly cleaning the body helps to get rid of the skin infection or its related problem. As we study the color used in the ancient Holi festival, we find there was no chemical mixed color as we use these days. Even in the past years when our grandparents use to celebrate the Holi festival they didn’t use these colors. They used red color is made of kumkum, yellow is made from turmeric powder when mixed with lime, it miraculously turns to scarlet, green from Neem leaves, They even used Multani mitti which is known as fuller’s earth has lots of benefits for skincare. There are many other herbs and flowers extracts which has tremendous health benefits mentioned in Ayurvedic treatment. But now people use artificial and even chemical mixed colors that harm the skin. Most of these chemical mixed colors can lead to many skin allergies and rashes. Exposure to these harmful colors can lead to eye infections and temporary blindness. Copper sulfate, which is present in some of the colors, can be very dangerous. So it’s necessary to educate people about the harmful colors and their side effects. In this festival from ancient times, people consume bhang with a mixture of other herbs and spices for the benefit of health. It is a cannabis plant a part of the ancient  Hindu tradition and custom in the Indian subcontinent. As we know these days it has medicinal properties for many complications. If taken in proper quantity, bhang is believed to cure fever, dysentery, sunstroke, aids in digestion, increase appetite, etc. But now they drink intoxicated liquor due to lack of knowledge and influence by a modern culture which brings lots of complaints and the festival is widely criticized. If we see every cultural rituals and festival which has lots of positive and negative sides but we have to carry that positivity and try to avoid anything that spread negative effects to the community.

Nowadays it is celebrated around the world with joy and a colorful mood. The beginning of the Holi festival seems to have been established as a festival to increase mutual love through colors. The religious, social, cultural, and psychological significance of this festival is still there, and this festival is also inherent in nature. Spring is celebrated as a festival of interviewing or welcoming. The originality, significance of the Holi festival is to celebrate Holi or the festival of colors without any distortion, to increase love, friendship, and harmony between relatives and friends, to expand the relationship of new friends, to reunite the broken relationship by enjoying mutual meetings and games. It is also sometimes called the “festival of love” as on this day people get to unite together forgetting all resentments and all types of bad feelings towards each other.

This festival is also called Phagu Purnima in many parts of India and Nepal because The festival falls in the Hindu calendar month of Phalgun, which usually falls between February and March. On this day, people play with colors, water, flowers, and more, they smear Gulal on each other, and youngsters seek the blessings of their elders. People gather in groups play music, dance and visit their friends and relatives.