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Lord Krishna's birthplace also celebrates Holi with flowers

     Mathura (Uttar Pradesh): While Holi is synonymous with splashing of colours, people at Mathura, the birthplace of Lord Krishna, celebrate the festival of colours with flowers as well. Vasanta Panchami marks the beginning of this season of festivities. Fresh flowers, sprouts and young shoots of trees and shrubs are bought in to celebrate the renewal of nature. Originally, this was also celebrated as Madan Panchami, dedicated to the God of Love. Hence, songs of love between Lord Krishna and his beloved gopies also feature heavily during this season. Fuldol is also known as Pushpadolotsav. Pushpa means flower. This is the festival of flowers and colour. It is celebrated on Fagun Vad, the day after Holi. The origin of Fuldol concerns Lord Krishna and the Prince Arjun of the epic Mahabharata. Once, both climbed Mount Girnar in Junagadh. Here Lord Krishna pleased the devotees known as Yadavs by his divine sports and they made a huge swing of flowers called Hindolo. They then requested Lord Krishna and Arjun to sit on the beautiful Hindolo and performed some religious rituals before pushing it. Since then Arjun and Shri Krishna were worshipped as Nar and Narayan.

     Spread over a period of 16 days, the festival of Holi is celebrated in Mathura and Vrindavan in a variety of ways, to express the public's deep and ever lasting affiliation with Lord Krishna, and flowers are one of the must use items during the duration of the event. Holi is celebrated on Purnima, the day of the full moon in March every year. Holika Purnima, which is celebrated in the early part of the month, is also called Hutasani. It marks the arrival of Spring - the season of hope and new beginnings and a rekindling of the spirit of life according to the Bhagvad Gita. Apart from the traditional fun and frolic, the celebration of Holi involves the taking out of vibrant processions, accompanied by folk songs, dances and a general sense of abandoned vitality. The zest is there for all to see in Mathura, Vrindavan, Nandgaon, and Barsnar. Holi in Mathura is played in different forms, whether it is the faag dances or the lathmar holi which is played by sticks or Holi played with flowers. Devotees in large numbers came to witness the colourful Braj Holi. "Twenty-seven years ago, the devotees who came to the temple wanted to play Holi on a large scale. All the devotees turned Holi into a big celebration. Later some organisations supported the devotees and as a result Holi is played on a large scale here,"said Kapil Sharma, the secretary of the local temple. According to the organisers of the event, they wanted all forms of Holi to be under one roof. "There are several ways of playing Holi in Braj. All types of Holi whether it is the Holi dance or any other form of Holi is played here, under one roof. We want that all the types of Holis should be played under one roof so that people can enjoy all forms at one place only," claims Gopeshwar Chaturvedi, one of the organisers of the fest. Holi at Mathura and Vrindavana is celebrated with great gusto for many days, as these were places where Lord Krishna spent most of his childhood. Each major temple celebrates Holi on a different day. People throng the temples to play holi and get blessings from the God.
-Mar 22, 2005