Wish Your Hindu friend Happy Holi (and Surprise Them With a Splash of Color)
Have you ever seen movies where people throw colored powder all over each other in India, laughing and dancing? Like this:
Over a billion Hindus, and most everyone in India, celebrate spring, love, new life, and the triumph of love over evil in India every spring, usually around the beginning of March in this holiday called Holi—or the ‘festival of colors”. This year 2024, it’s on March 25, and for a few days after that too.
Holi is one of the most famous holidays in India. While some Hindus hold religious ceremonies, most celebrate this multi-day adventure as a time of laughing and interaction with family and friends.
I created some fun (and meaningful) Happy Holi graphics with verses from the Bible for you to message to your friends—or post on your social media. Scroll down to download your favorite one. If your friends from India aren’t in India for Holi, they’ll be missing the spontaneous interaction and traditions. They’ll love it if you acknowledge their culture on March 8 and will feel special and known.
First though, it might help to know a little about Holi so you can ask questions—which might even lead to deeper spiritual conversations. Perhaps your holiday greetings will get you a surprised dousing of colored powder, a teasing squirt of colored water, or at the very least, some yummy sweets.
Here’s what the two days of Holi mean, a legend associated with each day, and two activities you can do with your friends to celebrate and have fun with them, and create bridges of meaningful conversation. (Then don’t forget to keep scrolling a choose an image to text or post!)
The first day of Holi, called Holika Dahan is celebrated after sunset with a big bonfire, usually set up in a communal area. People gather around, perform puja (prayers), and then light it. They might dance and sing around the bonfire, which symbolizes good over evil. We can redeem this part of the holiday because we know who has power to triumph good over evil, and we can share this good news with Hindus.
#1 FUN THING TO DO:
Pull out that firepit and invite your co-worker, neighbor, or mom on the community sports team, from India (and their family) over for s’mores after work and school. Sit around the fire and ask questions, and tell stories.
All holidays, even ones we celebrate, have traditional legends associated with them, that some might not even know. You can read this version (by Richa Jain in a blog Culture Trip), and see if there are any ways to bridge this into a spiritual conversation of how God triumphed, and will triumph, over evil.
#1 Legend to Read
The Legend of Holika Dahan
Legend has it that once, there was a powerful king named Hiranyakashipu. He was a devil and was hated for his cruelty. He considered himself to be God and wanted everybody in his kingdom to worship him like one. However, his own son, Prahlada, was a devotee of Lord Vishnu and refused to worship his father. Angry with the disobedience of his son, Hiranyakashipu tried killing his son a number of times, but nothing worked. He then asked his evil sister, Holika, for help. Holika possessed a special power of being immune to fire. So, to kill Prahlada, she tricked him into sitting with her on a pyre. But due to her evil intentions, her power became ineffective and she was burned to ashes. On the other hand, Prahlada gained this immunity and was saved. This is why the first day of Holi is celebrated as Holika Dahan and symbolizes the victory of good over evil.
The second day of Holi is the color day. Kids and young people hide on balconies to drop balloons and squirt guns filled with colored water at unsuspecting passerbys. And everyone throws fistfuls of colored powder at everyone else, all day long, especially those who wear white (and lots of people do, the more color, the better!).
In the evening, after bathing and showering off all the colored mess, it’s time to visit family and friends, sharing food, drink, and the most famous Holi sweet called Gujiya, a dumpling filled a milky inside and dried fruits.
#2 FUN THING TO DO:
If you have Indian friends, you might want to buy some colored powders (just search ‘colored powders’ on Amazon, there’s a bunch of them), and surprise your friend with a shower of color! Give them a pack to throw on you too, and then you’ll have a story to tell everyone else at work, school, or your neighbors.
#2 LEGEND TO READ
Read this second legend that’s supposedly why people throw color on each other (also by Richa Jain in a Culture Trip blog) and see if you can think of a way to tell a story of how God made all people and loves every one, no matter their color.
The Legend of Radha and Krishna
In the region of Braj (where Lord Krishna grew up) in Uttar Pradesh, Holi is celebrated until the day of Rangpanchmi as a huge festival, in memory of the devotional love of Krishna and Radha. A local legend is associated with this as well. When Krishna was a baby, he acquired a distinctive blue skin colour after drinking the poisoned breast milk of the she-demon, Putana. Later, when he became young, he would often feel sad about whether the fair-coloured Radha or other girls in the village would ever like him because of his dark colour. Giving in to his desperation, Krishna’s mother asked him to go and colour Radha’s face with any colour he wanted to. So when Krishna applied colour to Radha, they both became a couple, and since then, people have started playing with colours on Holi.
Here’s how to wish a Hindu or friend from India a happy Holi
First, make a list of all your friends, co-workers, and neighbors who are from India. Don’t forget social media acquaintances too.
Second, click on one of the images below to download and save the image your phone or computer. (After you click on the image, hold the Ctrl Key down and click on it. Then choose Save Photo).
Third, text, e-mail, or message the graphic to your friend, with a simple one-liner, “Happy Holi to you and your family!”
This simple gesture will warm their hearts as you remember them, and honor their faith and traditions.
Fourth, you might want to post one of these graphics directly on your social media—Instagram, Facebook, or wherever you hang out online. You can write something longer here, such as, “Happy Holi to all my friends from India as you celebrate one of your most fun holidays. May God give your family love, new beginnings, and may good triumph over evil!”
Just click on any of the beautiful images below to download and save them to your device.
I found verses for the graphics that come directly from the Bible and relate to what the Holi holiday means. Hindus are happy to read verses from the Bible because they consider it a book of wisdom, and they are always seeking truth.
Click to Download and save Any of the Images…and send them to your Hindu friends from India
Holi is the celebration of new beginnings, so why not acknowledge Creator God as the one who starts each day?
Holi also is a celebration of evil over good, so let’s give some advice on how to do that.
Holi is also the celebration of Spring and new beginnings, so let’s encourage our friends with God’s strength to continue.
Holi is also a celebration of love, so here’s some good love advice straight from the Bible.
PS: Not sure where to find Hindu friends? Join the The Neighbors & Nations Course where you can Survey Map Your Area in Lesson One to find where Hindu temples might be and where Hindus might be living near you, how to prayer walk around that area, and there’s even a lesson on how to properly Meet and Greet people from other cultures around you. That’s just a peek. The whole course is about BEING GOOD NEWS to your neighbors and the nations near you.