Holi, widely known as the Hindu festival of colours, is a joyful annual celebration at the advent of spring with cultural and religious significance. (Photo | PTI)

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IN PICS | What is Holi, how is the festival of colours celebrated?

Online Desk

Updated:25th Mar, 2024 at 3:39 PM

Typically observed in March in India, Nepal, other South Asian countries and across the diaspora, the festival celebrates love and signifies a time of rebirth and rejuvenation — a time to embrace the positive and let go of negative energy.

People play with colours during Holi festival celebrations, in Hyderabad.

For one of Holi's most well-known traditions, celebrants clad in all white, come out to the street and throw coloured powders at each other, leaving behind a kaleidoscope of pigments and joy.

Holi is celebrated at the end of winter and the beginning of spring, on the last full moon day of the Hindu luni-solar calendar month of Falgun.

The date of the festival varies depending on the lunar cycle. Typically, it falls in March, and will be celebrated this year on March 25.

Some people consider Holi a reference to Lord Krishna and his love for his beloved, Radha, and his cosmic play with his consorts and devotees called “gopikas," who are also revered for their unconditional love and devotion to Krishna.

In many parts of India, people light large bonfires the night before the festival to signify the destruction of evil and victory of good.

On the day of Holi, entire streets and towns are filled with people who throw coloured powder in the air.

Cries of “Holi hai!” which means “It’s Holi!” can be heard on the streets. Holi has also been romanticized and popularized over the decades in Bollywood films.

The colors seen during Holi symbolize different things. Blue represents the colour of Lord Krishna’s skin while green symbolizes spring and rebirth. Red symbolizes marriage or fertility while both red and yellow — commonly used in ritual and ceremony — symbolize auspiciousness.