The month of March has come in and along with it bought for us the much awaited festival of India that is, Holi. Holi is coming and giving us the message that winter is departing and the hot favourite spring season is on its way to come. The whole nature gets rejuvenated after the coming of the spring season and the atmosphere seems to be colorful and thankful to spring for its coming after the long drawn winter season.
There are different stories in our Indian society regarding Holi but the most famous one is the story of Prahlad. The story is like this that Once in ancient India there lived a king named, Hiranyakashyap, and he wanted every people of his kingdom to worship him as God. He passed the order that if anyone was found to be worshipping any God in his kingdom, no matter who he or she was would be sentenced to death. But his little son, Prahlad, was a devotee of Lord Vishnu and he continued to worship the lord as he was doing before without paying any heed to his father's order. When the king heard about his son he got very angry and decided to punish Prahlad and take an avenge. He ordered to his people to throw Prahlad and his demoness 
sister, Holika, into a burning fire. He knew that his sister would be safe as she was blessed to be untouched by fire and Prahlad would be burnt to death.
As the king ordered so was done but the result was different than what the king aspect ed as because Holika was burnt to death while Prahlad remained untouched by fire. The people of the kingdom was very happy and shouted with joy by seeing Prahlad safe and untouched by fire. They had to believe that Lord Vishnu saved young Prahlad because he was his true devotee. From that day onwards, just a day before Holi holika is burnt by the people. It is believed that it was a victory of truth against evil.
Holi is popularly known as Dol in Bengal and Orissa, Phagua is Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and in some other regions as Basant Panchami since this festival greets the coming of Basant (Spring Season). Moreover, in some of the states it is celebrated as long as fifteen days. On the day of holi everyone including children, women , men and the aged shower different kinds of coloured water like orange, red, green and violet on each other to make the atmosphere more colourful. Later in the day they clean themselves up by bathing and have some home made drinks which is usually mixed with bhang (a kind of weed used for pleasure purpose) and eat different kinds of sweets like Gujiya, sandesh etc. Later in the evening they move out to meet with relatives and friends to wish them happy holi and apply coloured powder called Abeer or Gulaal to celebrate the occasion.
Really this festival teach us to live together peacefully and brings a sense of brotherhood among us. People on this day forget about their past grievances and become friends once again. I am eagerly waiting for this festival and counting every single day and also hoping that you all are also very much excited and waiting for this festival to come and you must be planning ,beforehand, as what to do on this holi and what kind of colours to buy and from where to buy so that you get the best one. Let this festival come once again this year and shower on us the colour of love and blessing and brotherhood among our friends, relatives, society and to our whole Bharat Varsha ( India ).