THE COLORS OF BIHAR

Holi is a festival of colors celebrated all over the country. People celebrate it on the first day of the Hindu Calendar, that is 'Pratham Chairtra Mass' (February-March). In Bihar, a typical style Dhamar of holi song is sung in which the villagers celebrate it in a form of group with full joy and dance with musical instruments like dholak, jhal-manjeera, etc. This dance is related to the mythical story of Bhakt Prahlad and his demon father Hiranyakshipu.

Bihar is the state of fairs and festival related to various religious things. It is the state of much of the ritual communities. All of the communities have their own ritual folk traditions. But some of the folk cultures of Bihar celebrated by the all tribes of the state. One of them is the festival of Holi. Holi is the festival of India. It is the festival of colors, joys, and happiness.
Holi is the festival which celebrated by the people on the first day of New Year of Hindu Calendar which called as ‘Pratham Chaitra Massa’ that is the month of February or March. People of Bihar celebrate this festival with the Holi dance. Holi dance is the sign of joyous of people and the energy level to live the life with new manners. It is so beautiful folk dance in which both male and female participate. There are some of beautiful and rhythmic musical instrument like jhal – manjeera and Dholak make this dance so charm and energetic.
There is a mythological story behind the celebration of this festival and dance. It is said that the festival of holi is celebrated in the remembrance of Bhakt Prahlad. He was a true devotee of lord Vishnu. This is the festival which is not only celebrated in Bihar but also in all over the parts of the country.

Phagu Purnima

Phagu Purnima is another name for Holi where Phagu means the sacred red powder and Purnima or Pune is the full moon day, on which the festival ends.

At some places like Bihar, Holi is also known as Phagwa as it is celebrated in the later part of the month of Phalgun and the early part of Chaitra in the Hindu calendar. This corresponds to the English months of March-April.

The concept of New Year (Samvatsar) varies in the different provinces of our country. In some provinces, the month commences from the 'Krishna-Paksha' on the other hand in some provinces it commences from 'Shukla-Paksha'. For the former, the year ends on 'Purnima' of the month of Phalgun. The new years begins next day - Chaitra, 1st day of the Krishna Paksha. For them on this day the last year has died. For this reason in some provinces like Bihar and UP. Holika dahan is also called 'Samvatsar Dahan'. On this day all the bitterness and evil memories of the last year are burnt in the fire and the New Year is begun with a celebration.

THE VITAL LANGUAGE : BHOJPURI

The Bhojpuri people have a distinct and virile tradition and were famous in the past for their bravery. Bhojpuri is spoken in various forms and its grammatical structure differs in many respects from the other two languages in Bihar. It has peculiarities of declension and conjugation not found elsewhere. On the whole, its grammar is simpler than that of Maithili and Magahi.
The Bhojpuri language of Bihar is the third largest Indian language spoken outside India. The Bhojpuri language covers a large geographic area crossing state boundaries. Other than Bihar, the language is spoken in the North West part of Jharkhand (that was part of Bihar once), the Purvanchal or eastern part of Uttar Pradesh along with the adjoining area of southern plains of Nepal. Outside India, Bhojpuri is spoken in spoken in Guyana, Suriname, Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago and Mauritius. These are the places where the Bihari community migrated in vast numbers during the British rule to work in sugar plantations.

For the first time in the history of the Bhojpuri language it is being noticed. From the coming of popular singers such as Kalpana that has made Bhojpuri almost a household name. Hindi film makers are now considering adding Bhojpuri item songs to attract the vast Bhojpuri speaking community.
In addition, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has decided to launch a foundation course in the Bhojpuri language. The course was inaugurated by Indian Parliament speaker Meira Kumar (also from Bihar). She added that "Bhojpuri is not only a language but a lifestyle and a culture. Sanskrit and Latin have most precise grammar and vocabulary. Bhojpuri too has a very precise grammar, rich vocabulary and literature". Although the course is aimed at Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, it is thought that the course might be useful to Bhojpuri speakers in places such as Mauritius. Soon the establishment will be starting Certificate and Diploma Courses in Bhojpuri. 
Bhojpuri is spoken in the western districts of Bihar such as Champa-ran, Saran, Shahabad, Palamau and Ranchi. Although the Ranchi district is mainly populated by Adivasis, the common language of the people is Sadari or Sadani, which is a form of Bhojpuri. Bhojpuri-speakers are also found in north-western Muzaffarpur and the Pirpanti and Golgong police stations of theBhagalpur district. There are more than ten million Bhojpuri-speaking people in Bihar. It is spoken also in the Varanasi and Gorakhpur divisions of Uttar Pradesh. Bhojpuri areas have helped much in the growth of Hindi literature. Although Bhojpuri has no such old written literature as Maithili has, the love with which its speakers cherish it is just as great. Bhojpuri is so called after the language of Bhojpur, a pergana of the Shahabad district.
Except in a few isolated instances, the form of the verb depends only on the subject. Bhojpuri is written in Kaithi, a script ascribed to the Kayasthas, the scribes of India, but this script is nowadays being given up by educated people in favour of Devanagri. A mass of oral literature is extant in Bhojpuri in the form of folk-songs, folk-tales and legends and it abounds in proverbs and riddles. In the works of such saintly poets as Kabir, Dharamdas, Dharnidas, Daryadas, and Lakshmi Sakhi, the influence of Bhojpuri is immense.
In recent times, many collections of folk literature have been published by Grierson, Ram Naresh Tripathi, Krishnadeva Upadhyay, Durga Shankar, Prasad Singh and W. G. Archer, and Sankata Prasad. The famous poem 'Batohia' written by Raghubir Narayan and the play entitled 'Bidesia' by Bhikari Thakur have made history by their popularity. Bhikari Thakur is the people's poet in Bhojpuri and in his poems are reflected the joys and sorrows, the toils and tears of the simple rural folk of his area.