होली पूजन विधि एवं कथा (फाल्गुन पूर्णिमा) · Holi Poojan Vidhi & Katha (Phalgun Purnima)

Holika Dahan, the bonfire, is lit at night, while women's collective Holi puja takes place between afternoon and evening. First, the ground is plastered with cow-dung and water to form a chowk, a ritual square. A straight stick is planted at its center, and a thread called badkula or gulri is wound four times around it. Beside the stick, a shield and sword shaped from cow-dung, along with small toys, are placed. For the puja itself, water, roli, moli thread, rice, the dung shield, raw cotton thread, jaggery, coconut, roasted gram, and a garland of dung-cake discs are used. After the puja, the shield and sword are kept at home. On this same day, four gulri garlands are made — one for the ancestors, one for Hanuman Ji, one for Sheetla Mata, and one set aside for the family deity.

Those who do not light their own Holi join wherever the community bonfire is being lit. One takes a garland, the full puja materials, a strand of raw cotton, a water-filled lota, a coconut, roasted gram in a cloth pouch, and papad to the bonfire site. There, the pole of Holika is worshipped, the garland and coconut are offered, and the fire is circled in parikrama. Once it is lit, the gram and papad are roasted, shared, and eaten, and the offered sugarcane is carried back home. If fire is carried from the village's shared bonfire to light one's own Holi, the burnt stick is later placed outside — devotees hold that this stick embodies the protection given to Prahlad. As the fire burns, women offer water from a lota seven times, along with roli and rice. Afterward, Holi and celebratory songs are sung; gram, moong, and barley pods, along with papad, are roasted in the home's Holi fire and shared with all; everyone applies a roli tilak to one another, and the young touch the feet of their elders for blessings. Finally, a little oil is dabbed on the hands of the household's children and offered, in Bhairon Ji's name, upon a brick at the crossroads.

In ancient times there lived an immensely powerful demon-king named Hiranyakashyap, whose son Prahlad was a supreme devotee of Bhagwan Vishnu. Hiranyakashyap regarded God as his enemy and forbade anyone in his kingdom from uttering His name. Through fierce tapasya he had gained immense power, tormented the devas, and even seized Indra's throne — yet his deepest enmity was reserved for Vishnu. It was a bitter irony that his own son Prahlad grew wholly absorbed in devotion to Him. When Hiranyakashyap sent his son to a guru to learn the arts of kingship, he discovered that Prahlad's mind remained fixed only on Bhagwan's bhajan. Forbidden from taking God's name, Prahlad still would not give up his devotion. Enraged, Hiranyakashyap had him locked in a chamber full of snakes, hurled from a mountain, and thrown before a trampling elephant — yet each time, by Bhagwan's grace, Prahlad emerged unharmed.

At last, Hiranyakashyap commanded his sister Holika to take Prahlad upon her lap and sit within a fire, so that the boy would be burned to ashes. Holika had been granted a boon that fire could never harm her. Obeying her brother's order, she sat in the flames with Prahlad. But by Bhagwan's divine play, not a single hair of Prahlad's was singed — the fire around him turned cool as snow — while Holika herself was consumed and reduced to ashes in that same blaze. It is in memory of this very event that Holika Dahan is lit every year. Seeing his son unharmed and his sister burned, Hiranyakashyap was maddened with fury and grief. He had Prahlad bound to an iron pillar and demanded, 'Where is that Bhagwan of yours, whose name you forever chant?' Prahlad answered fearlessly, 'He dwells everywhere.' Hiranyakashyap mocked him — 'Is he in this pillar too? If so, let me split it open with my sword this instant and see how he saves you.' So saying, he raised his sword to strike Prahlad down.

The very instant Hiranyakashyap raised his sword to strike, Bhagwan Vishnu burst forth from that same pillar in the form of Narasimha — half lion, half man. Bhagwan Narasimha laid Hiranyakashyap across his thighs, tore open his belly with his claws, and slew him, thereby protecting the life of his young devotee Prahlad. It is for this reason that, at Holika Dahan, the pole of Holika is worshipped as a symbol of Prahlad's protection, and the festival is celebrated as the victory of truth over falsehood, and of devotion over tyranny.