Bold, bright and beautiful. The world’s most colourful festival has just taken place and the images are breath-taking.
Holi Festival is a Hindu celebration known widely as the Festival of Colour. It is celebrated mainly in India and Nepal and recognises love, colour, fertility and the triumph of good over evil.
Holi can actually be split into two parts: Holika Dahan and Rangwali Holi.
Holika Dahan occurs the night before Rangwali Holi and is where wood and ding-cakes are burned to symbolise good defeating evil. This is followed the next morning by Rangwali Holi, which is when people gather in public spaces and throw handfuls of coloured powder at each other.
The timing of Holi differs each year as it synchronises with the moon and falls on the last full moon day of the Hindu lunisolar calendar month.
It is a national holiday in India and marks the first day of spring.
Holi has been around for centuries with the first mention of it being traced back to fourth century poetry and it was described in a seventh century play called Ratnaval.
The play stated: "Witness the beauty of the great cupid festival which excites curiosity as the townsfolk are dancing at the touch of brownish water thrown from squirt-guns. They are seized by pretty women while all along the roads the air is filled with singing and drum-beating. Everything is coloured yellowish red and rendered dusty by the heaps of scented powder blown all over."
We’re booking our flights to India for next year right this minute...
