Holi festival celebration in India

Holi is celebrated in India these days, during which, according to tradition, people shower each other with colored powder and douse each other with tinted water. This year, Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan urged his fans to avoid dousing as parts of the western Indian state of Maharashtra are suffering from severe drought and locals complain that they do not have enough drinking water.

(Total 48 photos)

1. Hindus are sprinkled with colored powder during prayer at the Radha temple before the start of the Lathmar Holi festival in the hometown of Radha, wife of the Hindu god Krishna, in Barsana, 115 km from New Delhi, India, on March 21, 2013.

2. Indian women from the village of Barsana beat with wooden sticks men from Nandgaon during the celebration of the Lathmar Holi festival.

3. A man from Nandgaon teases women from Barsana.

4. A young resident of Nandgaon, smeared with water and paints, arrives in Barsana.

5. Hindu men from Nandgaon are sprinkled with colored powder at the Radha temple.

6. Hindu men covered in colored powder sit on the floor in the Radha temple.

7. Hindu transsexuals, smeared with colored powder, dance in the temple of Radha.

8. Hindus pour colored water on the men from the village of Nandgaon.

9. Indian students smear each other with colored powder during the celebration of Holi on the campus of Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata. The university is based in the residence of the first Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

10. Powdered believers sing at the Nandagram temple in Nandgaon.

11. Residents of the village of Nandgaon pour colored water on women from Barsana arriving at the Nandagram temple.

12. Hindus pour colored water on foreign tourists in Nandgaon.

13. Indian believers from Barsana and Nandgaon sing at the Nandagram temple.

14. Dousing with colored water at the Nandagram temple.

15. Men from Nandgaon throw colored powder at women from Barsana arriving at the Nandagram Temple.

16. Painted Indian devotees sing at the Nandagram temple.

17. Indian devotees at the Nandagram temple.

18. Indian devotee dancing in the Nandagram temple.

19. A young Hindu priest throws colored powder at the devotees at Bank Bihari temple in Vrindavan.

20. Hindus throw colored powder at each other at Bank Bihari temple in Vrindavan.

21. A boy sits on the shoulders of a Hindu in the Bank Bihari temple.

22. Hindus in the temple Bank Bihari.

23. A Hindu priest pours colored water over devotees at the Banke Bihari temple.

24. Indians sprinkle each other with colored powder during the celebration of Holi in Hyderabad.

25. Doused with colored water, people drive past the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan.

26. Colored water is sprayed on Indian devotees at the Swaminarayan Temple in Ahmedabad.

27. Holi celebration at the Swaminarayan Temple in Ahmedabad.

28. Hindus throw colored powder at each other at Bank Bihari temple.

29. Celebration of the Holi festival at Banke Bihari temple.

30. A man pours a bucket of colored water over a Hindu woman in Vrindavan.

31. Indian children celebrate the Holi festival in Vrindavan.

32. Hindus throw colored powder at each other at Bank Bihari temple.

33. A disabled child rejoices while his teacher smears him with colored powder, in Mumbai.

34. Indian women smear each other with paints during the celebration of Holi in Allahabad.

35. Hindus celebrate the Holi festival at the Bihari Bank Temple.

36. Indian splashes people with a water pistol in New Delhi.

37. Indian youth celebrates Holi in Jammu.

38. Indians dance under artificial rain in Hyderabad.

39. Indians sprinkle each other with colored powder near the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan.

40. Holi celebration in Allahabad.

41. Indian girls smear each other with colored powder in Mumbai.

42. Indians celebrate the Holi festival in Allahabad.

43. Indian watering people with colored water near the temple of Banke Bihari.

44. A jet of colored water hits a girl's face in Calcutta.

45. Indian widows look at the performance of a dancer at an event on the occasion of the Holi festival, organized by the non-governmental organization Sulabh, at the Mira Sahbhagini Ashram in Vrindavan. Widows, many of whom once frantically roamed the streets of the city, are celebrating Holi for the first time at a century-old ashram. These women were expelled from their families after the death of their husbands.

46. A dancer, almost unconscious, lies on the ground after spinning in a dance during a Holi celebration at the Mira Sahbhagini Ashram in Vrindavan.

47. Indian widows sprinkle each other with colored powder during the celebration of Holi in the ashram in Vrindavan.

48. Holi celebration at the ashram of Mira Sahbhagini in Vrindavan.