Holi 2023: India celebrates festival of colours
- Published

Children and adults celebrate Holi with bright colours
Millions of Indians are celebrating Holi - the festival of colours - at home and around the world.
The festival which marks the last full-moon day of the lunar month celebrates the beginning of spring and the victory of good over evil.
People celebrate this day by smearing bright colours on friends and family, offering prayers and burning a bonfire to symbolically destroy the bad so that the good can triumph.

Holi is marked with colourful dances and performances

The festival is a social highpoint for devotees
The festival is based on a Hindu legend and has a huge cultural significance in India. People see the festival as symbolising new beginnings, and as a time to mend relationships and start afresh.
Huge processions are held in several parts of India to mark the festival. People dance and sing and hold sumptuous feasts with traditional fare. Schools are shut as children and adults devote the day to colourful celebrations.

Many schools remain closed to mark the festival
The festival is celebrated in a grand and unique way in cities like Vrindavan and Mathura in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Celebrations last for an entire week. Devotees undertake massive processions where they dance and throw colour at each other.

People in Vrindavan city throw flower petals to celebrate Holi

Devotees offer prayers at famous shrines in India
In the days leading up to the festival, the streets are lined with stalls selling powdered colours, pichkaris (water pistols) and other festival-related paraphernalia.

Children spray coloured water using water pistols

Many shops sell colourful water pistols and powdered colours
Photos of people celebrating the festival from various parts of the city show them completely covered in colourful paint as they take part in the large gatherings. People smear gulal (a red powder) - which symbolises wealth, passion and strength - on each other to mark the festival.

People spend the day with their loved ones and hold festive meals

Groups of friends gather in the street and throw water and colour on each other
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