THE HOLI: A VERNAL FESTIVAL OF THE HINDUS.
BY W. CROOKE, B.A.
The Holi, the vernal fire-festival of the Hindus, has for a long time attracted the attention of students of anthropology and folklore, because it includes many features of special interest, and supplies material for the investigation of similar observances in other parts of the world. It seems, therefore, worth while to collect the facts scattered through a literature much of which is not readily accessible to European scholars; and, secondly, in the light of comparative studies by Dr. Frazer and others, to attempt an investigation of the principles upon which these observances are based. It will be convenient to begin with a statement of the facts so far as I have been able to collect them, and at the close of this paper to suggest an explanation of them.
The festival, known throughout Northern India as Holi,[1] Phag, or Phagua, and in the Deccan and Western India as Shimga or Hutashana, takes place at the full moon of the month Phalguna, which in the year 191 3 occurred on 22nd March, the day after the vernal equinox, when the sun enters the sign of Aries. According to the present calendar, the Hindu New Year begins on 1st Vaisakha or Baisakh, corresponding according to the Bengali scheme with 14th
- ↑ The Sanskrit form of the word is holaka, said to be derived from the sound made in singing: Phalguna, takes its name either from the root phal ("to burst open or produce fruit"), or from sphurj ("to thunder"); Hutashana is an epithet of the fire,—"oblation-eating."
