English dictionaries spelled Holi five different ways before settling on it
European traders were fascinated by the festival of colours by the 17th century, but could not agree how to write it. Old Oxford English Dictionary editions record Houly in 1687, Hooly, Huli, Hohlee and Hoolee, before Holi finally stuck in editions after 1910.
Holi welcomes spring and says goodbye to winter. It begins on the evening of the full moon in the Hindu month of Phalguna, usually in March and occasionally late February, and lasts a night and a day. The night before, communities light bonfires for Holika Dahan, the burning of Holika, also called Little Holi, singing and dancing around the flames. Next day comes the famous part, when Hindus and non-Hindus alike drench one another in coloured water and powder.
Its meanings layer on top of one another. It honours the love of Radha and Krishna, and marks good defeating evil through Vishnu's victory, in his form as Narasimha, over Hiranyakashipu. It also asks for a fruitful spring harvest; 17th-century writing described it as a celebration of agriculture and fertile land. Many Hindus treat it as a chance to repair broken relationships, end quarrels and shed old grudges.
The festival is old. It emerged before the Gupta period and is mentioned in Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras, in Puranas such as the Narada and Bhavishya, and by the poet Kalidasa during the 4th-century reign of Chandragupta II. King Harsha's 7th-century Sanskrit drama Ratnavali refers to holikotsav. The Garga Samhita, attributed to the sage Garga, was the first text to describe Radha and Krishna playing Holi romantically.
Names multiply with geography. Bengal knows it as Dol Jatra, the swing festival, or as the spring festival; Assam as Phakua; Nepal's hills as Phagu Purnima. Hindu communities in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname and Jamaica call it Phagwah, and Fijians say Phagua. In the Braj region, where Radha and Krishna are said to have grown up, celebrations stretch on until Rang Panchmi.
Source: Holi
