Each year, to celebrate the start of spring as well as fertility, colour and love, Hindus across the world celebrate with the Holi Festival.
Known for its vibrant colours, the religious festival is mainly celebrated in Nepal and India, with revellers throwing vibrantly-hued powders at one another.
Also called the Festival of Colour, this year’s Holi Festival runs from March 9 to March 10 and can be split into two parts: Holika Dahan and Rangwali Holi.
Monday, March 9 saw Holika Dahan, where wood and ding-cakes are burned to symbolised good defeating evil. This was followed by Rangwali Holi on Tuesday morning, where people gathered in public places to throw handfuls of colours at one another (you can see a selection of these images in the gallery above).
Each year, the timing of Holi differs as it synchronises with the moon and falls on the last full moon day of the Hindu lunisolar calendar month.
The festival can be traced back to the fourth century where it was mentioned in poetry, and it was also described in a seventh century play called Ratnaval.
It said: "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."
Click through the gallery above to see some of the most spectacular images from 2020’s Holi Festival...
