Holi celebration

Bishnupriya Manipuris are basically “Vaishnavites” who mainly worship “Sree Krishna” as their God and lead a very religious life. Therefore, the members of this society are in general very devotional. Throughout the year, they celebrate various religious and traditional rituals-festivals. “Holi” or “Dola Jatra” is one of the biggest occasions for the Bishnupirya Manipuris. Holi festival is celebrate across the world by the Hindus however, Bishnupriya Manipuris celebrate this occasion with much more reverence and importance. It is a 5 days celebration, starts with the “Yongshan Jonmo”, a symbolic occasion where it is believed that they burn down the devil like “Holika Dahan” and also according to a different school of belief, setting the fire is symbolic to the end of winter. The next two days, children go to house to house and beg taking the name of “Hari” or “Lord krishna” meanwhile they play with colors and also celebrate Holi. The householder welcome those kids who believe that these kids are the embodiment of the lord “Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu” himself with his consortium singing the songs of krishna door to door. They offer the kids money and rice which is called “Madhukari”. Kids accumulated money and rice later are used for various social causes like building a temple or other social activities. The last three days, the musical groups tour different villages and performs live musics throughout the night. The groups mostly perform songs of Holi, Radha-Krishna, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s. Some times dual between two musical group can be witnessed which is not a competition rather a collaboration. These three days Bishnupiya Manipuris mostly keep themselves awake and consider the musical performances as very auspicious. These five days the whole Manipuri locality becomes festive. Holi serves a greater purpose than just enjoying the moments of playing with colors. It commemorates the religious values and consolidate the social bonding amongst the people. Also, it is a huge platform for artists to showcase their skills in the field of music and dance. Please share your beautiful culture so that it can reach more and more people. Project: Documenting Bishnupriya Manipuri Culture and Heritage.