Bonfire (Holika Dahan)

Hello Beautiful People,

I am Riddhi Bhatt. And yes, today I am coming with something interesting   data or information.  This Sunday reading task is assigned by by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Bhavangar University (MKBU).

Today we discuss about Bonfire (Holika Dahan). Also, we see that How many countries celebrate Bonfire? And Why? Then What are the rituals around such celebrations. Story or myth around those celebrations.

We Indians celebrate Holi Festival with full of fun and enjoyment. In this same way every Country has their own myth and way of Bonfire Festival. So let’s discuss various Burnfire and different type of rituals. Before starting with Indian bonfire, I would like to discuss what is the meaning of bonfire?

 

Bonfire:

 According to our Googlebaba Bonfire means ...

ü  A large fire that is made outside to burn unwanted things, or for pleasure.

ü  A large fire built outdoors, as for signalling or in celebration of an event

ü  A large, controlled outdoor fire, as a signal or to celebrate something.

 

How many countries celebrate Bonfire?

There are so many regional views and myths and like stories on bonfire and different countries. So, in many regions of continental Europe, bonfires are made traditionally the solemnity of John the Baptist, as well as on Saturday night before Easter. Bonfires are also a feature of Walpurgis Night in central and northern Europe, and the celebrations on the eve of St. John's Day in Spain. In Finland and Norway bonfires are tradition on Midsummer Eve and to a lesser degree in Easter. In Sweden bonfires are lit on Walpurgis Night celebrations on the last day of April.

Country name	Bonfire name
Alpine and Central Europe ü  Zürich ü  Austria	Osterfeuer Sechseläuten
Australia	Canberra bonfires
Canada	Bonfire night
France	Jean le Baptiste
India ü  Punjab ü  Assam ü  Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu ü  Gujarat	Lohri Bhogali Bihu ( Magh-Bihu) Pongal Holika-Dahan
Iran	Chaharshanbe Suri Sadeh
Iraq	Feast of the Cross bonfire
Ireland ü  Limerick ü  County Cork ü  Northern Ireland	festival of Bealtaine Bonna Night Halloween (Samhain)
Israel	eve of Lag BaOmer
Italy ü  Northeast Italy ü  Tuscany	Panevin Fiaccole
Japan ü  city of Kyoto ü  Fukuoka	Gozan no Okuribi Daizenji Tamataregu Shrine’s “Oniyo”
Nepal	camp-fire
Lithuania	St John's Eve (aka: Rasos (Dew Holiday)
Czech/ Slovak Republic	Phillip-Jakob's Night (Burning of the Witches)
Turkey	Kakava
United Kingdom	Guy Fawkes Night
Scotland	Wickerman Festival
South Korea	Jeongwol Daeboreum Deulbul Festival

 

There are many story or myth around those celebrations. Here we discuss about this stories and after that we see that the myths believed in by Vaishnavites and Shaivites in India. And also In which myth I am believe more than the other one.

Iran- Sadeh:

According to religious beliefs, Jashn-e Sadeh recalls the importance of light, fire and energy; light which comes from God is found in the hearts of his creatures.

Legends have it that King Hushang, the 2nd king of the mythological Pishdadian dynasty (Pishdad means to give the Law), established the Sadeh tradition. It is said that once Hushang was climbing a mountain when all of a sudden, he saw a snake and wanted to hit it with a stone. When he threw the stone, it fell on another stone and since they were both flint stones, fire broke out and the snake escaped. This way he discovered how to light a fire.Hushang cheered up and praised God who revealed to him the secret of lighting a fire. Then he announced: "This is a light from God. So, we must admire it."

The festivities would normally go on for three days. The evenings are spent eating and giving out foods as donations, food that is prepared from slaughtered lambs and is distributed among the poor people.

Sadeh has a complex history and two different days were observed for the festival's veneration. In addition to 50 days (100 days and nights) before the beginning of the new year (or hundredth day after the gahambar of Ayathrima), already noted, the other celebration marked the hundred day before the religious new year (religious new year is not necessarily the same as spring new year). It is not clear why there are two Sadeh Festivals and why different regions have had different dates. Many of Zoroastrian holy days were and are celebrated twice; this is most likely caused by the calendar reform in the 3rd century AD.

Although for the majority of Iranians Sadeh has no religious significance and no specific rituals are involved other than lighting fires at sunset and having a cheerful time, Iranians of all faiths make a collective effort at this day to keep up with their ancient traditions and to celebrate the preciousness of creation.

England - Guy Fawkes Night (Bonfire Night):

Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Fireworks Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in the United Kingdom. Its history begins with the events of 5 November 1605 O.S., when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords. Celebrating the fact that King James I had survived the attempt on his life, people lit bonfires around London; and months later, the introduction of the Observance of 5th November Act enforced an annual                                                                                 public day of thanksgiving for the plot's failure.

Guy Fawkes Night originates from the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a failed conspiracy by a group of provincial English Catholics to assassinate the Protestant King James I of England and VI of Scotland and replace him with a Catholic head of state. In the immediate aftermath of the 5 November arrest of Guy Fawkes, caught guarding a cache of explosives placed beneath the House of Lords, James's Council allowed the public to celebrate the king's survival with bonfires, so long as they were "without any danger or disorder”. This made 1605 the first year the plot's failure was celebrated.

Japan- Daizenji Tamataregu Shrine’s “Oniyo”:

Daizenji Tamataregu Shrine’s “Oniyo” is a “tsuina” (a ceremony to drive away evil spirits) fire festival. It has been a tradition of the shrine for about 1,600 years and is also one of Japan’s Three Major Fire Festivals! At 9pm on the seventh day that a “devil fire” has been guarded at the temple, it is transferred to six enormous torches measuring one meter in diameter and 15 meters (49 feet) in length. These torches are then carried around the shrine grounds by a crowd of men in loincloths and burn up in the dark. Onlookers are said to be blessed with good luck if some of the embers or ash from the torches falls on them!

Guatemala- Quema del Diablo (Burning of the Devil):

On December 7th, Guatemala celebrates a holiday called La Quema del Diablo, or “Burning the Devil,” a preparatory holiday in anticipation for the feast of the Immaculate Conception. This tradition, originating in the 18th century, burns away all the bad from the past year, serving to purify the conceiving of Jesus, as he is to be free from all evil.

According to National Geographic’s Intelligent Travel, the tradition began in Antigua during colonial times, when monasteries would burn a figure of the devil and light fireworks on the Day of the Rosary in October. It was later moved to December when there was a push to celebrate Mary’s triumph over evil.

Locals create papier–mâché or wooden devils and collect old trash and goods they no longer needed before gathering in the street amongst street vendors and food carts and volunteer firefighters who ensure the flames don’t get out of control. The devils are doused in gasoline and set ablaze at 6pm sharp as all the bad experiences, negative feelings and jealousies of the year are reduced to ashes.

As the Guatemalan people honor their patron saint and watch their negativity burn away, they vibrantly celebrate through song and dance, celebrating a La Quema del Diablo as the official kick-off to their Christmas season.

India – Holika Dahan:

Holi was originally a spring festival of fertility and harvest. Now it also marks some Hindu legends, which provide some of the ingredients for the celebrations.Holi is an ancient festival which is referred to in the 7th century Sanskrit drama, Ratnaval.

The Legend of Prahalad and Holika

This is the main Holi legend. Holika was a female demon, and the sister of Hiranyakashyap, the demon king. Hiranyakashyap considered himself ruler of the Universe, and higher than all the gods.Prahalad was the king's son. His father hated him because Prahalad was a faithful devotee of the god Vishnu.

One day the king asked him "Who is the greatest, God or I?"

"God is," said the son, "you are only a king."

The king was furious and decided to murder his son.But the king's attempts at murder didn't work too well. Prahalad survived being thrown over a cliff, being trampled by elephants, bitten by snakes, and attacked by soldiers. So the king asked his sister, Holika, to kill the boy.

Holika seized Prahalad and sat in the middle of a fire with the boy on her lap. Holika had been given a magic power by the gods that made her immune to fire, so she thought this was a pretty good plan, and Prahalad would burn to death while she remained cool. But it's never wise to take gods' gifts for granted! Because Holika was using her gift to do something evil, her power vanished and she was burned to ashes. Prahalad stayed true to his God, Vishnu, and sat praying in the lap of his demon aunt. Vishnu protected him, and Prahalad survived.

Shortly afterwards, Vishnu killed King Hiranyakashyap and Prahad ruled as a wise king in his father's place.

Moral of this story:

The moral of the story is that good always wins over evil, and those who seek to torment the faithful will be destroyed. To celebrate the story, large bonfires are burned during Holi. In many parts of India, a dummy of Holika is burned on the fire. 

So here we see that different type of myth or stories about bonfire. Now we see that Vaishnavites and Shaivites in India. And also In which myth I am believe more than the other one. So let’s see…….

 

Vaishnavism and Shaivism:

Vaishnavism:

Vaishnavism is the worship and acceptance of Vishnu (Sanskrit: “The Pervader” or “The Immanent”) or one of his various incarnations (avatars) as the supreme manifestation of the divine. During a long and complex development, many Vaishnava groups emerged with differing beliefs and aims. Some of the major Vaishnava groups include the Shrivaishnavas (also known as Vishishtadvaitins) and Madhvas (also known as Dvaitins) of South India; the followers of the teachings of Vallabha in western India; and several Vaishnava groups in Bengal in eastern India, who follow teachings derived from those of the saint Chaitanya. Most Vaishnava believers, however, draw from various traditions and blend worship of Vishnu with local practices.

In the Vedas and Brahmanas, Vishnu is the god of far-extending motion and pervasiveness who, for humans in distress, penetrates and traverses the entire cosmos to make their existence possible. All beings are said to dwell in his three strides or footsteps (trivikrama): his highest step, or abode, is beyond mortal ken in the realm of heaven. Vishnu is also the god of the pillar of the universe and is identified with the sacrifice. He imparts his all-pervading power to the sacrificer who imitates his strides and identifies himself with the god, thus conquering the universe and attaining “the goal, the safe foundation, the highest light” (Shatapatha Brahmana).

Whatever justification the different Vaishnava groups (such as the Shrivaishnavas of South India or the worshipers of Vishnu Vithoba in Maharashtra) offer for their philosophical position, all of them believe in God as a person with distinctive qualities and worship him through his manifestations and representations.

Vishnu in one of his many local manifestations; the North Indian groups prefer Krishna.

Shaivism:

The character and position of the Vedic god Rudra—called Shiva, “the Auspicious One,” when this aspect of his ambivalent nature is emphasized—remain clearly evident in some of the important features of the great god Shiva, who together with Vishnu came to dominate Hinduism. Major groups such as the Lingayats of southern India and the Kashmiri Shaivas contributed the theological principles of Shaivism, and Shaiva worship became a complex amalgam of pan-Indian Shaiva philosophy and local or folk worship.

Shiva also represents the unpredictability of divinity. He is the hunter who slays and skins his prey and dances a wild dance while covered with its hide. Far from society and the ordered world, he sits on the inaccessible Himalayan plateau of Mount Kailasa, an austere ascetic, averse to love, who burns Kama, the god of love, to ashes with a glance from the third eye—the eye of insight beyond duality—in the middle of his forehead. And at the end of the eon, he will dance the universe to destruction. He is nevertheless invoked as Shiva, Shambhu, Shankara (“Benignant” and “Beneficent”), for the god that can strike down can also spare. Snakes seek his company and twine themselves around his body. He wears a necklace of skulls. He sits in meditation, with his hair braided like a hermit’s, his body smeared white with ashes. These ashes recall the burning pyres on which the sannyasis (renouncers) take leave of the social order of the world and set out on a lonely course toward release, carrying with them a human skull.

Shiva’s consort is Parvati (“Daughter of the Mountain [Himalaya]”), a goddess who is an auspicious and powerful wife. She is also personified as the Goddess (Devi), Mother (Amba), black and destructive (Kali), fierce (Chandika), and inaccessible (Durga). As Shiva’s female counterpart, she inherits some of Shiva’s more fearful aspects. She comes to be regarded as the power (shakti) of Shiva, without which Shiva is helpless. Shakti is in turn personified in the form of many different goddesses, often said to be aspects of her. 

Vaishnavites and Shaivites are mostly important in india. And I believe I Vaishnavites. Vaishnavism is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is the largest Hindu denomination with 67.6% of Hindus being Vaishnavas. It is also called Vishnuism, its followers are called Vaishnavas or Vaishnavites, and it considers Vishnu as the Supreme Lord. It also includes some other sub traditions like Krishnaism and Ramaism, which consider Krishna and Rama as the Supreme being respectively.

Key texts in Vaishnavism include the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Pancaratra (Agama) texts, Naalayira Divya Prabhandham and the Bhagavata Purana.

Vaishnavism theology has developed the concept of avatar (incarnation) around Vishnu as the preserver or sustainer. His avataras, asserts Vaishnavism, descend to empower the good and fight evil, thereby restoring Dharma. This is reflected in the passages of the ancient Bhagavad Gita as:

Whenever righteousness wanes and unrighteousness increases I send myself forth.

For the protection of the good and for the destruction of evil,

and for the establishment of righteousness,

I come into being age after age.

— Bhagavad Gita 4.7–8

 

The Bhagavad Gita is a central text in Vaishnavism, and especially in the context of Krishna.The Bhagavad Gita is an important scripture not only within Vaishnavism, but also to other traditions of Hinduism. It is one of three important texts of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, and has been central to all Vaishnavism sampradayas.

These all things are very briefly here discussed by me. Later one I want to present a very detailly and interesting things about Vaishnavism and Shaivism. I hope you all are satisfy by this my blog and some brief discussion.

Thank you....

 (words : 2638)