Holi is the Hindu festival of colors. It is celebrated at the end of the winter season, on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna. In 2015, Holi will begin on March 6.
Holi is observed with great fanfare by Hindus all over the world. Holi festival celebrations begin on the eve of the festival with bonfires and prayers. On the day of Holi, people throw colored powder and liquids at each other. A common greeting during this time is, “Happy Holi.” It is a joyous ritual when intense colors, light, emotion, and energy combine in a surreal vision of spirituality.
A man smeared the face of a woman with colored powder during celebrations marking Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, in Mumbai on March 6. The streets and lanes across most of India turn into a large playground where people of all faiths throw colored powder and water at each other. (Rajanish Kakade/Associated Press)Water fell on the colored hand of a man dancing during Holi celebrations in Gauhati, India, on March 6. (Anupam Nath/Associated Press)
Children covered in colored powder played during celebrations of Holi at the Society for the Education of the Crippled in Mumbai on March 4. (Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)Widows daubed in colors chanted religious hymns as they took part in the Holi celebrations on March 4. (Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters)The face of a widow was daubed in color after the Holi celebrations at Vrindavan on March 4. (Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters)Water fell on the colored hand of a man dancing during Holi celebrations in Gauhati, India, on March 6. (Anupam Nath/Associated Press)Colored powder was applied to a man’s face while celebrating Holi in Mumbai on March 6. (Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)People played with tomato pulp as part of the Holi celebrations in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on March 6. (Amit Dave/Reuters)Colored water was splashed on a man during Holi celebrations in the southern Indian city of Chennai on March 6. Holi, also known as the Festival of Colors, heralds the beginning of spring and is celebrated all over India. (Reuters)A widow daubed in colors played a drum at a widows’ ashram at Vrindavan on March 6. (Ahmad Masood/Reuters)Widows daubed in colors danced as they took part in the Holi celebrations at a widows’ ashram on March 6. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)Widows daubed in colors danced as they took part in the Holi celebrations organized by nongovernmental organization Sulabh International in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on March 6. Traditionally in Hindu culture, widows are expected to renounce earthly pleasure so they do not celebrate Holi. But widows at the shelter, who have been abandoned by their families, celebrated the festival by throwing flowers and colored powder. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)Widows daubed in colors danced at a widows’ ashram at Vrindavan on March 6. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)Indian men, their faces smeared with colored powder, rode a motorbike during Holi in Hyderabad, India, on March 6. (Mahesh Kumar A/Associated Press)Indian Hindu widows stood covered with colored powder after celebrations marking Holi at the Pagal Baba Ashram in Vrindavan, India. (Tsering Topgyal/Associated Press)Members of the Nepalese ethnic Madhesi community celebrated the Holi Festival in Kathmandu, Nepal, on March 6. People from Madhesh lowland, who migrated to the capital, celebrated the Hindu spring festival of color. (Narendra Shrestha/EPA)Hindu men from the village of Nandgaon prayed at the Ladali, or Radha temple, before joining a procession for the Lathmar Holi festival in Barsanai, India. (Saurabh Das/Associated Press)Indian Hindu devotees smeared with colors visited the Nandagram temple, famous for Lord Krishna and his brother Balram, during Lathmar Holi festival in Nandgaon, India, on Feb. 28. During Lathmar Holi the women of Nandgaon, the hometown of Krishna, beat the men from Barsana, the legendary hometown of Radha, consort of Hindu God Krishna, with wooden sticks in response to their teasing as they depart the town. (Saurabh Das/Associated Press)Indian men set alight a huge bonfire in the northern town of Phalem before dawn on March 6. Hundreds of villagers from the farming town crowded rooftops and a small square as a Hindu priest walked through a raging fire in a ritual that marks the burning of demon Holika on the day of Holi. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)An Indian villager waited near a Hindu temple as a priest readied himself to run through a huge bonfire in the northern town of Phalem on March 6. Hundreds of villagers from the farming town crowded rooftops and a small square as the priest walked through a raging fire in a ritual that marks the burning of demon Holika. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)Indian people celebrated the Holi festival in Allahabad on March 6. (Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty Images)Indian children sprayed water as they celebrated Holi in Allahabad on March 6. (Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty Images)A Hindu widow lay on a sludgy ground filled with a mixture of colored powder, water, and flower petals during celebrations to mark Holi at the Meera Sahabhagini Widow Ashram in Vrindavan, India. (Bernat Armangue/Associated Press)An Indian married couple stood waited to cross the railway tracks on arrival in their hometown for festival holidays in Allahabad on March 6. Indian Railways runs special trains to meet the demand for travel during the Holi Festival. (Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images)
Flynn Matthews 
