Mon Mar 10 02:00:00 UTC 2025: ## Holi 2025: Long Weekend Celebrates Triumph of Good Over Evil
**NEW DELHI –** This year’s Holi festival, the vibrant “festival of colours,” will offer a long weekend for revelers, falling on Friday, March 14th, 2025. The auspicious Holika Dahan ceremony, signifying the victory of good over evil, will be performed the evening before, on Thursday, March 13th.
According to the Hindu calendar, Holika Dahan, which marks the burning of the symbolic effigy of Holika, will take place during the most auspicious time between 11:26 PM on March 13th and 12:30 AM on March 14th. The Bhadra Kaal, an inauspicious period, will precede the ceremony, lasting from 10:35 AM to 11:26 PM on March 13th.
The ritual involves building a pyre of firewood, cow dung cakes, and twigs, onto which offerings like perforated cow dung cakes, wheat grains, and herbal paste (ubtān) are placed. The burning of the pyre is believed to purify the surroundings and ward off negative energies. Many collect the ashes afterward, applying them as a tilak for protection and blessings.
This year’s festivities are particularly convenient, with Holi falling on a Friday, followed by a Saturday and Sunday, creating a four-day break.
The Holika Dahan ceremony commemorates the story of Prahlad, a devotee of Lord Vishnu, who survived a fiery ordeal orchestrated by his demonic aunt Holika, highlighting the triumph of devotion and truth over evil.
First Piper 