{"id":2407,"date":"2013-03-27T16:06:26","date_gmt":"2013-03-27T16:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/religion101\/?p=2407"},"modified":"2013-03-27T16:06:26","modified_gmt":"2013-03-27T16:06:26","slug":"holi-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religion101\/2013\/03\/holi-2013.html","title":{"rendered":"Holi 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today (as I write, Wednesday, March 27, 2013), Hindus worldwide are observing the spring religious festival known as <em>Holi,<\/em> or the &#8220;festival of colors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Holi always begins on the final full moon of the lunar month of <em>Phalguna<\/em> on the Hindu calendar. However, that fixed starting date on the Hindu religious calendar does not always coincide with March 27 on the secular Western (Gregorian) calendar. Last year, for instance, Holi fell on March 8, 2012. Next year, by contrast, Holi will fall on\u00a0 March 17, 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of when it falls in relation to the Western calendar, Holi is a joyous celebration of the end of winter and the start of spring, as well as a commemoration of several different traditional Hindu tales involving divine goodness triumphing in various ways over demonic evils.<\/p>\n<p>During Holi, ordinary social restraints are somewhat loosened, while boisterous fun and merriment become the order of the day. Recalling the newly emerging colors of the spring season, colored water is squirted and colored powder flung upon strangers passing in the street. Friends and families may paint themselves and each other with colorful paints. Bonfires burn, music plays, and revelers embrace, exchange sweets, and dance.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d like to take this opportunity to wish my Hindu readers around the globe a very\u00a0<em>&#8220;Happy Holi!&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today (as I write, Wednesday, March 27, 2013), Hindus worldwide are observing the spring religious festival known as Holi, or the &#8220;festival of colors.&#8221; Holi always begins on the final full moon of the lunar month of Phalguna on the Hindu calendar. However, that fixed starting date on the Hindu religious calendar does not always&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":515,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-2407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hinduism","tag-march-2013"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Holi 2013 - Religion 101<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religion101\/2013\/03\/holi-2013.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Holi 2013 - Religion 101\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today (as I write, Wednesday, March 27, 2013), Hindus worldwide are observing the spring religious festival known as Holi, or the &#8220;festival of colors.&#8221; Holi always begins on the final full moon of the lunar month of Phalguna on the Hindu calendar. However, that fixed starting date on the Hindu religious calendar does not always&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religion101\/2013\/03\/holi-2013.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion 101\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-27T16:06:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Reed Hall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Holi 2013 - Religion 101","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religion101\/2013\/03\/holi-2013.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Holi 2013 - Religion 101","og_description":"Today (as I write, Wednesday, March 27, 2013), Hindus worldwide are observing the spring religious festival known as Holi, or the &#8220;festival of colors.&#8221; Holi always begins on the final full moon of the lunar month of Phalguna on the Hindu calendar. 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