Holi Celebrations: Create Your Own Ritual With Spring Intentions

Holi is the Hindu New Year celebration and welcomes a new beginning. Be inspired by this colorful ritual this year and celebrate your spring intentions!

During the Holi festival, the streets of Delhi are filled with clouds of different colors of dust and people turn into festive rainbow creatures. It’s the vibrant effect of the special Holi color powder, intended to wish each other luck. The symbolic pigment has now blown over to the west in the form of color runs, but it actually belongs to this spiritual ritual of renewal. So what is Holi exactly? Here you will discover how to create your own spring celebration with positive intentions for the Hindu new year!

When is Holi celebrated?

The Holi festival is also called Holi Phagwa or color powder festival. This color powder party takes place on the evening and day of the Full Moon in March, at the end of the Vedic year. It marks the Hindu new year. Hindus follow a different calendar, which has its starting point in spring. When nature awakens and the sun returns, it’s time for a fresh start!

How is Holi celebrated? The Spiritual Meaning of the Holi Festival

For most Hindus, spring is a time of spiritual renewal. Four things are therefore important during this period:

• Reflection on the Old Year
• Sense of Unity
• Worship of Natural Force
• Celebration of the Light

Reflection on the Old Year

For Hindus, winter is a time to retreat. The New Year’s party is then the threshold to spring, in which there is energy for growth again. During this celebration you first look back in order to be able to move forwards.

Sense of Unity

Hindu New Year is mainly celebrated in groups. For example, people celebrate with family in the mandira (temple), but also with strangers on the street. The Holi powder also ensures that there is no difference between rich, poor, young, and old. Everyone participates in life!

Worship of Natural Force

The color powder and scented water symbolize blossoms, watering, and pollination. So what is Holi Phagwa? Celebrating different elements that together make new life!

Celebration of the Light

On the eve of New Year, the Holika Dahan is narrated. This myth is about the triumph of good over evil. The moral of it is that you must believe in the light of spring to overcome the darkness of winter. That is why bonfires and large funeral pyres pop up everywhere during Holi in honor of Shiva Nataraja. People sing and dance around them and the ashes are used as a protective dot or tilak on the forehead the next day.

Check Out Our Shiva Statues Here

How to Do a Spring Ritual Yourself

Even if you did not grow up with Hindu New Year, you can still celebrate this spiritual spring festival. Create a colorful ritual to welcome spring with these simple tips:

• Form Spring Intentions
• Add Fire
• Choose Color
• Use Fragrance and Water

Form Spring Intentions

Look back on the past seasons: what have you experienced, what did you learn and what do you want to let go of? Imagine this for yourself and then visualize what you want to Manifest in the coming year, for example by making Affirmations of your wishes.

Add Fire

During a fire ritual you can burn things that you want to release symbolically, for example in an open fire. Invite your friends, because you celebrate New Year together! If you want to make your Holi party a bit less wild, light some incense for Spiritual Smoke or feel the power of Scented Candles inside.

Choose Color

You can buy Holi powder for your celebration, but a homemade potpourri of spring flowers, herbs and spices can be just as colorful. Rainbow  Chakra Stones also represent the wealth of Mother Nature!

Use Fragrance and Water

Vaporize Essential Oil during your spring party, put fresh flowers for yourself or use dried leaves in (tea) water. Florida Water may also be appropriate as this floral scent is said to help Cleanse Yourself of Negative Energy.

Learn More About Hinduism

Has Holi woken up an interest in this major Indian religion and its influence all over the world? Learn more about this religion starting with it’s five most important Hindu Symbols or some of the popular Words of Hindu Wisdom. Gods like Genesha and Shiva Nataraja and what they mean to their followers are also an important part of Hinduism. Maybe try some Hindu Mantra Meditation with mantras like Ohm Namah Shivaya or using a traditional Rudraksha Mala, representing the tears of Shiva. Just remember to be good to others and act with good intentions, and your Karma will stay positive according to the Hindu tradition. Find your introduction to all things spiritual at Spiru.

Subh Holi, Happy Holi or Happy New Year!