Navroz Mubarak, Happy Holi and Good Friday to everyone

Navroz is an age old tradition dating back to the Assyrians bringing gifts to their Achaemenid King. The Fatimid Imams adopted this local tradition and gave it grandeur with their elaborate processions and participation by all, when they expanded the Caliphate from Egypt to include Persia. Since then, this new year tradition of the first day of Spring, has remained with us and spread across the continents.


The soul of the universe
is the sovereign of time,
for God has raised up
the body through the soul.


When the auspicious Jupiter
saw his face, it became
the source of munificence,
the mine of good fortune.


As long as the clouds
of Navroz wash all quarters
of the garden with
showers of lustrous pearls;


and the nightingale laments
the rose at the break of dawn,
like a grieving soul
separated from its lover:


may the authority of
the sovereign of time
prevail over space and time
and the denizens of the world!


-Nasir Khusraw
- Translated by Faquir Hunzai
(Source: Shimmering Light)

The above from here.


History of Holi here.


Literally "Holi" signifies "burning" in Indian language.
But, how it came to be associated with 'burning', is a story.
The reference is found only in ancinet Indian mythology.
And It is the legend of Hiranyakashipu,
to whom the celebration of Holi is associated.

Way back in the pre-Christian era,
there lived a demon king named Hiranyakashipu in ancient India.
He wanted to avenge the death of his younger brother.
The brother, also a demon, had been killed by Lord Vishnu,
one of the supreme trio, monitoring the life and death in the universe,
(according to the Hindu belief).
To take on Vishnu, the tyrant king wanted
to become the king of the heaven, earth and the underworld.
He performed severe penance and prayer
for many years to gain enough power.
Finally he was granted a boon.
Powered by the boon,
Hiranyakshipu thought he had become invincible.
Arrogant, he ordered all in his kingdom to worship him, instead of God.
The demon king, however, had a very young son, named Prahalad.
He was an ardent devotee of Vishnu.
Despite his father's order,
Prahalad continued to pray to Vishnu.
So the demon king wanted to kill his son.
He asked the favor of his sister Holika
who, because of a boon, was immune to fire.
They planned that Prahalad would be burned to death.
A pyre was lit up and Holika sat on it, clutching Prahalad.
Yet, at the end Prahalad emerged unscathed by the fire,
And Holika, the demon, was burned to ashes.
The earnest devotion and
complete submission to Lord Vishnu savedyoung Prahlad.
Thus was the triumph of Prahlad, the representative of good spirits.
And the defeat of Holika, the representative of evil.
Later, even the demon king Hiranyakashipu was killed by Lord Vishnu.
But that is quite a different story.
It is from Holika, that the Holi originated.
This legend is relived even today on the Holi-eve
when the pyre is re-lit in the form of bonfires.
Even today, people celebrate this occasion.
Huge bonfires are lit up every year
on the eve of the full moon night of the Holi to burn the spirit of the evils.
Hence the story associated with the soul of the celebration.

Good Friday is the Friday within Holy Week, and is traditionally a time of fasting and penance, commemorating the anniversary of Christ's crucifixion and death. For Christians, Good Friday commemorates not just a historical event, but the sacrificial death of Christ, which with the resurrection, comprises the heart of the Christian faith.From Here.