As many Western nations struggle to return to the vibrancy of pre-winter life, spring is ushered in across the Hindu world. Holi, the Hindu festival of color and love was celebrated over this weekend and into Monday.
Beginning with an evening bonfire on the full moon in March, festival goers sing and dance into the night. The next day is filled with colored paints and waters, thrown freely at strangers and friends alike. Celebrated as the triumph of good over evil, in India Holi is also traditionally a time when strictly separated castes can interact freely.
While India and Nepal are the most widely-known for their Holi celebrations, the festival has spread westward into Europe and the U.S. as well. Festivals vary by location, with traditions — mythological and otherwise — influencing how regions and villages celebrate. In Barsana, northern India, women playfully hit men from the nearby village of Nandgaon with wooden sticks as they parade through the town.
The Guardian reports that Google’s India homepage features an exclusive Holi doodle and, in a statement on the nation’s government website, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh wrote: “May the festival bring health, happiness and prosperity to all.”
Below are fifteen photos of Holi festivites in India.
1.Ahmadabad
A girl is smeared with colored powder.
2.Ahmadabad
A man sprays colored water as another throws colored powder on devotees.
3.Vrindavan
Hindu widows play Holi for the first time as a part of celebrations organized by the NGO Sulabh. After their husbands’ deaths the women had been banished by their families to the town Vrindavan, where devotees believe Lord Krishna was born, for supposedly bringing bad luck.
4.Vrindavan
Widows stand outside their room in Vrindavan.
5.Mumbai
A woman shakes her head covered in colored powder.
6,Mumbai
A girl splatters another from behind.
7,Mumbai
A man throws colored powder on another.
8.Chennai
A boy drags another on the floor of an apartment.
9.Allahabad
A man has his face smeared with colors to celebrate Holi in Allahabad.
10.Nandgaon
Villagers arrive at the Nandagram Temploe in Nandgaon.
11.Barsana
According to a Hindu tradition, men from Barsana arrive at the temple where they are soaked in colored water by men from Nandgaon and beaten by the women of the village with wooden sticks as they depart the town.
12.Barsana
Women wait with a wooden sticks at the door step of their house for the arrival of neighboring villagers.
13.Barsana
A man loses his balance as a woman hits him with a wooden stick.
14.Barsana
An elderly man seek alms from devotees outside the Ladali or Radha temple before the procession for the Lathmar Holi festival.
15.Gauhati
A girl, face smeared with colored powder, sits on her father’s shoulders.
