India Ushers in Spring with Colors of Holi

Many parts of northern Indian just celebrated Holi, an annual Hindu festival of colors that ushers in the arrival of spring.

The two-day festival began Wednesday night (March 23) with singing around a traditional bonfire and continued into Thursday (March 24) with celebrations where participants smeared each other with colored powders and water.

More traditional forms of Holi are celebrated across the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Celebrations can last up to seven days in Barsana, Nandgaon and Mathura, the last known as the birthplace of the Hindu deity Krishna.

“This is amazing, I’ve never seen anything like this. I really wish we had more festivals like this is the west,” Cole Anderson, a travel photographer visiting the site of celebrations in Barsana, told BenarNews.

More recently, the festival has seen a push toward celebrating with more traditional colors made from dried flowers and herbs.

“I’ve been trying to promote herbal colors with all my customers for the past four years or so,” said Ashok Jagdeep, a shopkeeper in Old Delhi.

“This year, finally, I am seeing a huge demand for them. I am happy as I personally feel we should go back to ways of celebrating Holi as it was in ancient times,” he told BenarNews.

Elsewhere, Asha Mishra, a consultant with a multinational firm in Gurgaon, took to Delhi streets to promote what she called a “dry Holi.”

“I’ve taken an off day from my work for the past three days, just so that I can encourage people into not wasting too much water while celebrating Holi,” she said.