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Next: 22 Mar 2027

Holi

The festival of colours: pink, yellow, green and blue powder thrown on friends and strangers to welcome spring.

Holi Celebration in mathura, India
Photo: Jitenderasingh, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The colours of Holi

Holi marks the end of winter. A bonfire is lit the night before, and next morning people come out in old white clothes and cover each other in gulal, fine coloured powder, and coloured water from pichkaris, water squirters. Pink and red are the favourites, with yellow, green, blue and purple. For a few hours rank, age and caste are meant to be forgotten under the colour. Stories tie the custom to Krishna, who coloured Radha's fair face to match his dark one, and Holi is biggest in Mathura and Vrindavan, his country. The colours were once made from plants: orange from palash, the flame-of-the-forest flower, yellow from turmeric, green from leaves. Many people are returning to these herbal powders.

#E0457BGulal pinkThe commonest powder; love and play.
#F6C21CTurmeric yellowOnce made from turmeric and gram flour.
#F2711CPalash orangeDye boiled from flame-of-the-forest flowers.
#3FA34DSpring greenNew leaves; once made from henna and neem.
#2A62C9Krishna blueThe colour of Krishna, at the heart of the Holi stories.
#FAFAFAKurta whiteWhite clothes worn to show the colours.

Values are fair approximations, not official shades.

Read about the colours

AbirThe coloured powder itself.MagentaClose to the pink of gulal.TurmericTraditional source of yellow.IndigoA traditional source of blue.

More colours tied to Holi

Red Kumkum A red powder made from turmeric and lime, used for forehead marks in IndiaDye · 🇮🇳 India
About this page

Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Holi" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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