Holika Dahan 2027
21 March 2027

Holika Dahan is Phalgun Shukla Purnima, kept after sunset with a bonfire that opens the Holi season, lit to burn away Holika along with the evil she stood for. The Bhagavata Purana tells of Prahlad, a boy devoted to Vishnu despite his father Hiranyakashipu’s fury, and of Holika, the king’s sister, who could not be burned by fire and who took Prahlad onto her lap into a blazing pyre meant to kill him.

Prahlad, protected by his faith, came out unharmed, while Holika, who had used her gift to do harm rather than good, was consumed by the very fire she thought could not touch her. Families light their own Holika bonfire on this night in memory of that fire, circle it, and keep small customs for the year ahead before the colours of Holi the next day.

• Wood and dried cow-dung cakes for the bonfire
• A small Holika effigy
• Raw cotton thread
• Coconut, gram or corn to roast and offer
• Roli and akshat
• A diya to carry the first flame from home

Source: Bhagavata Purana, Book 7, the story of Prahlad and Holika

Hiranyakashipu, a demon king who had won a boon that made him nearly impossible to kill, demanded that all the world worship him alone. His own son Prahlad would not; he held fast to his devotion to Vishnu even as his father tried punishment after punishment to turn him from it.

When nothing else worked, Hiranyakashipu turned to his sister Holika, who had a boon that kept fire from harming her. She took Prahlad onto her lap and sat with him on a blazing pyre, meaning to burn the boy alive while she herself walked out unhurt.

The fire took Holika instead: her boon held only when it was used rightly, and it failed her the moment it was turned to doing harm. Prahlad, protected by his unshaken faith, stepped out of the same fire without a mark on him. This is the fire families remember when they light their own Holika bonfire.

What to do

• Keep the bonfire well clear of parked vehicles, dry branches and low wires, since many localities light theirs close together on the same night.
• Let children watch the lighting and the parikrama from a safe distance rather than near the flames themselves.
• If your family roasts grain in the embers, wait until the fire has settled into coals, since the first blaze is far too fierce for it.

What to avoid

• Avoid adding plastic, rubber or other synthetic waste to the bonfire; keep to wood, cow-dung cakes and the customary offerings, since burning these is both unsafe and no part of the custom.
• Many families avoid lighting their own Holika fire while Bhadra runs and wait for it to end, as tradition holds that span unfavourable for it.

Holika Dahan is kept across most of North India under this name, and as Kama Dahan in parts of the south, where the night is linked instead to the story of Kama, the god of love, reduced to ash by Shiva and later restored; in Braj, around Mathura and Vrindavan, the days around it are given over to the Lathmar and Phoolon ki Holi kept there and nowhere quite like it.

The date is decided by the Purnima running in pradosh kaal, the evening after sunset, read at each place’s own sunset; when Bhadra, an inauspicious span, runs long into the evening, the bonfire can move later into the night or to the next day in some places, by the family’s own custom.