Holi

The demon king Hiranyakashipu obtained a boon making him nearly indestructible—he could be killed neither by man nor beast, neither in the day nor at night, neither inside nor outside, neither on the ground nor in the sky. Drunk on his own power, he commanded all beings to worship him rather than Vishnu. His own son Prahlad, however, was an unwavering devotee of Vishnu. Despite repeated torture, Prahlad could not be turned from his faith.

In a final desperate act, Hiranyakashipu ordered his sister Holika—who had a boon of being immune to fire—to carry Prahlad into a pyre and burn with him. Prahlad chanted Vishnu's name through the flames, and by divine grace, Holika's boon failed: she was burned to ash while Prahlad emerged unscathed. The day after Holika's burning is the day of colours.

Hiranyakashipu's mockery of Vishnu soon reached its extreme, and a pillar in his court split open—from it emerged Narasimha (half-man, half-lion), who placed Hiranyakashipu at the threshold at dusk, on his lap, and killed him with his claws—defeating every condition of the boon. The triumph of devotion over tyranny and the arrival of spring are both celebrated in a single festival: fire the night before, colours at dawn.