Holi is a Hindu spring festival in India, also known as the festival of colours or the festival of sharing love.

It is a two-day festival which starts on the Purnima (Full Moon day) falling in the Bikram Sambat Hindu Calendar month of Falgun, which falls somewhere between the end of February and the middle of March in the Gregorian calendar.

The first day is known as Holika Dahan or Chhoti Holi and the second as Rangwali Holi, Dhuleti, Dhulandi or Dhulivandan.

In Hinduism, it celebrates spring, commemorates various events in Hindu mythology and is time of disregarding social norms and indulging in general merrymaking.

The central ritual of Holi is the throwing and applying of colored water and powders on friends and family, which gives the holiday its common name "Festival of Colors."

This ritual is said to be based on the above story of Krishna and Radha as well as on Krishna's playful splashing of the maids with water, but most of all it celebrates the coming of spring with all its beautiful colors and vibrant life.

Traditional Sources of Colours

The colours for Holi are traditionally made of Neem, Kumkum, Haldi, Bilva, and other medicinal herbs prescribed by Āyurvedic doctors.

Many colours are obtained by mixing primary colours. Artisans produce and sell many of the colours from natural sources in dry powder form, in weeks and months preceding Holi. Some of the traditional natural plant based sources of colours are:

Orange and red
The flowers of palash or tesu tree, also called the flame of the forest, are typical source of bright red and deep orange colours.
Powdered fragrant red sandal wood, dried hibiscus flowers, madder tree, radish and pomegranate are alternate sources and shades of red.
Mixing lime with turmeric powder creates an alternate source of orange powder, as does boiling saffron (kesar) in water.

Green
Mehendi and dried leaves of gulmohur tree offer a source of green colour.
In some areas, the leaves of spring crops and herbs have been used as source of green pigment.

Yellow
Haldi (turmeric) powder is the typical source of yellow colour.
Sometimes this is mixed with chickpeas, gram or other flour to get the right shade.
Bael fruit, amaltas, species of chrysanthemums, and species of marigold are alternate sources of yellow.

Blue
Indigo, Indian berries, species of grapes, blue hibiscus and jacaranda flowers are traditional sources of blue colour for Holi.

Magenta and purple
Beetroot is the traditional source of magenta and purple colour.
Often these are directly boiled in water to prepare coloured water.

Brown
Dried tea leaves offer a source of brown coloured water.
Certain clays are alternate source of brown.

Black
Species of grapes, fruits of amla (gooseberry) and vegetable carbon (charcoal) offer gray to black colours.