Dol Jatra: How Holi is Celebrated in West Bengal

Just like any other region in India, West Bengal too has its own unique way of celebrating Holi. Typically, Holi in Bengal is called dol jatra. It is also called dol Purnima because it is celebrated in Purnima or full moon.

Dol Jatra in West Bengal is also celebrated with full devotion and enthusiasm. However, the Bengali Holi is more artistic and spiritual. The dol jatra festival in West Bengal is not as active or lively as it is in North India. You can say it is a milder, peaceful, yet graceful celebration.

The main purpose of the Dol Jatra festival is the same as in the rest of India, which is:

• Showing love, devotion and respect to Lord Krishna and Radha.
• Showing joy for the arrival of spring after long winter months and 
• Celebrating the victory of good over evil through Holika Dahan.

So, the dol jatra festival is also a festival of colors and religious devotion with additional emphasis on music, dance, and drama performed in the streets.

The Religious Point of View

The rich tradition of Vaishnav Dharma is typically followed during dol jatra in West Bengal. This relates to the love of Radha and Lord Krishna and people’s devotion to this mythological aspect. They chant prayers and hymns to praise Radha and Krishna and perform specific rituals.

In some regions, idols of Lord Krishna are carried in beautifully decorated palanquins across streets in a grand procession while visiting different temples as well.

Since dol Purnima falls in the Phalguna month, it also happens to be the last major event, religious and otherwise, before Poila Baisakh, the Bengali New Year.

Bengal’s Special Way of Celebrating Holi

Holi in other parts of India and Holi in Bengal are quite different. While people in other parts of India primarily engage in color fights, Bengali Holi is more of a cultural affair, an exchange of sweets. The exchange of colors here is just symbolic where young ones put colors on the feet of the elders to show respect and seek blessing and the elders put on them to show love.

Ideally, the devotional songs, known as kirtans, and the dance dramas make Holi in Bengal so graceful and unique.

Traditional Sweet Dishes

In Bengal, dol yatra is usually associated with traditional sweet dishes that are offered to the God in the temples as well as to people exchanging colors. People also visit the houses of friends and relatives in the evening with sweets to greet each other.

The most common types of sweet dishes made and exchanged during dol jatra in Bengal include sandesh, peda, and malpua.

Basant Utsav of Shantiniketan

Holi celebration in Shantiniketan in West Bengal needs special mention. Here dol Purnima coincides Basant Utsav. This is a unique celebration during the Basant season. It was started by the Nobel Prize-winning poet Rabindranath Tagore, respectfully called Kabi guru in the region. 

The celebration includes poetry recitation, drama presentations, Rabindra Sangeet or songs written by Rabindranath Tagore himself, dance, and, of course, dry colors called Abir. Usually, all participants dress in yellow dresses, especially on Basant Utsav in Shantiniketan.

Take part in Basant Utsav in Shantiniketan on this Holi in Bengal for a spiritual uplift and enjoy soulful music and dance-drama. It is sheer magic!