Nepal Holiday Treks and TOurs

Holi Festival in Nepal – A Festival of Colors

Published 15th Mar, 2019

Holi Festival in Nepal – A Festival of Colors


Nepal’s most colourful and vibrant festival is Holi, also known as Phagu Purnima, is considered as a festival of adoration with the colours. Holi festival is a celebration of victory, and happiness in the springtime on the arrival of the full moon in the Nepalese month of Falgun Chaitra. (March) Holi is celebrated for 2 days, the First day is celebrated in Kathmandu and in the hilly regions of Nepal, whereas the second day is celebrated in the Terai region of Nepal.

It’s all celebrated in great fun likewise, other Hindus festivals. Generally, Holi festival is celebrated with colours, water, sweets and music. If you visit Kathmandu during Holi then you can witness the sight of shading different colour and water by local groups. With powders of colours, a bucket of coloured water, water guns and water balloons, the festivals are celebrated. Every individual put shading on each other faces differently from relatives and friends. People put a vast range of colours and water on each other and move around the city or also likely go to the concerts.

In some of the culture, people gather in a place and play music as they put each other with coloured water. This festival has spread to be a celebration of the different colours of joy in life. Almost every festival has its own mythological reason for celebration. So this Holi celebrates the victory of good over the bad.


The Mythological Reason behind celebrating Holi, by Hindus

According to the Myth, a five years old prince Prahlad an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu was asked to stop following Lord Vishnu by his demonic father, king Hiranyakashapu. But Prahlad didn’t obey his father order. So King Hiranyakashapu planned to kill his son to stop following and praising the name of his enemy, Lord Vishnu. Then, he requested his evil sister, Holika who was blessed with the blessing of being Fire immune, to take his son, Prahlad on her lap into a blazing fire. But Holika burned to death while Prahlad was protected by Lord Vishnu. Thus, this festival is the symbolic representation of this event.


Celebrations in Nepalese Holi

Holi festival is one of the most important festivals in Hinduism mainly celebrated in Nepal, India and other Nepali and Indian Spread countries. Holi is a colourful and fun-filled festival, with dancing, singing and throwing of powder paint and coloured water. Bright-colours of Abeer and gulaal till the air and people with pouring watercolour over each other. Children take special captivate in spraying colours with their pichkaris and water balloons. Women and senior citizen form a small group in their localities and water balloons.

Women and senior citizen form a small group in their localities or move in colonies, applying colours and exchanging greetings. Some also often organized parties where people dance with music and greet each other with putting colours.

Some families take holi, as a religious ceremony, but for some holi is more time for fun than celebrating as a religious observance. Holi festival may be celebrated by different people of different states with different traditions. But, what makes holi such a unique and special is the spirit of this festival which remains the same throughout the country or even across the globe, wherever holi is celebrated.


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Art representing various natural and cultutal heritages of Nepal