Phakuwa · Holi Festival The day of colours, the morning after the Holika bonfire.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Phakuwa · Holi
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: a tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
What the day is
The day of colours, the morning after the Holika bonfire. Dry gulal and coloured water are thrown on everyone without distinction of age or rank, which is the point of the day; Braj keeps a fortnight of it, with the lathmar Holi at Barsana and the flower Holi at Vrindavan. The southern reading is Kamadahana: Kama, who shot his arrow at Shiva in meditation, was burnt by the third eye, and the ashes are the fire of the night before.
- Deity
- Krishna, Radha, Kamadeva, Holika
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
The morning after Holika Dahan, which is the Phalguna Purnima read at pradosha. The colours are played through the morning and the visiting is in the afternoon.
The fast
No fast. Gujiya, thandai, malpua and dahi vada are the food, and in the north bhang is taken by some on the day.
Where the regions differ
The Hindi belt, Braj, Bengal (as Dol Jatra with the swing), Odisha (Dola Purnima) and Manipur (Yaosang) keep it hardest; the Deccan keeps it as Kamadahana or Kama Dahanam with the fire and little colour, and Tamil Nadu and Kerala barely keep it at all. Maharashtra puts the day on the Phalgun Pournima itself, the night of the bonfire, and waits until Rang Panchami five days later to play the colours; Assam plays the phaku the morning after the Doul. Assam plays the phaku the morning after the Doul Purnima, at Barpeta and Hajo above all, where the colour is thrown at the Gosain first and then at everyone else.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.