The festival of Rang Panchami is celebrated and observed five days after the Hindu festival of color, Holi.
It is celebrated on the 5th day of Phalgun, which is one of the months in the Hindu lunar calendar, by smearing fragrant and colored powder called gulals and splashing colored water from water jets at each other.
It is believed that the blazing fire which is set up on Holi causes the raja-tama particles to decompose into the atmosphere and this in turn awakens the Gods and the Goddesses in form of various colors.
This belief if celebrated by following the tradition of throwing the colored powders in the air.
This festival symbolizes the victory or the win over raja-tama and is celebrated with various exotic colors on Falgun Vadya Panchami.
Rang Panchami mainly involves summoning and invoking the Deities which forms a part of the process of worship of the forms of Gods that are recognizable and perceptible.
The main purpose and essence of it is to arouse five elements of bright manifest colors and to feel the presence and touch the Gods and Goddesses who are activated and summoned by those particular colors.
This festival is celebrated to worship and show respect to the Deities in their savior form.
The word Rang mean color and the word Panchami refer to the fifth day. As the name suggests, it takes place on the fifth day of the lunar month of Chet.
The festival of colors, Holi, is observed and played on the very first day of that particular month and is also observed in many villages across India. However in the small towns the main festival is celebrated on Panchami.
A procession is carried out on this day through every streets of the town. The procession is led by a huge water tank having pressure jet set up high on it, a camel and two cannons.
This procession goes around the entire town splashing colored water at everyone on the streets and thus spreading the joy of this festival.
It is customary to drink the traditional edible cannabis preparation called Bhaang to arouse the mood merriment and celebration and enjoy it to the fullest.
In the Indian state of Maharashtra, the locals recognize this festival of colors by the name of Rang Panchami since the celebration with colors and water jets are done on the fifth day instead of the first day of the month.
The local people of Maharashtra also call Holi by the name Shimgo or Shimga and it is popular mainly among the fishermen of Maharashtra. On this day all the fishermen come together to celebrate this festival by singing and dancing in their own traditional ways.
This festival is mainly observed in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and in some places of North India where people play with colors on the fifth day of the lunar month of Phalgun rather on the first day when the rest of the country celebrates the festival of Holi.
Rang Panchami is just like Holi and is associated with it but is not as popular as Holi as its celebration is limited to only few states.
