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Holi
The spring festival of colours, when people dress in white or old clothes and put on something fresh in the evening.
What is worn for Holi
Holi, the spring festival of colours, falls on the day after the full moon of Phalguna. The night before, a bonfire called Holika Dahan is lit. On the day itself people throw coloured powder and water at each other, to music and sweets. Because the colours stain, most people wear white or old clothes, and white cotton kurtas, salwars and sarees are common. After washing, families dress in new or fresh clothes and visit friends, with gujiya, a fried sweet, and thandai, a cold milk drink, on offer. The festival is biggest in north India, in Mathura and Vrindavan where it runs for days, and in Nepal.
The sarees
Written by the EveryPallu desk with AI assistance. Background: "Holi" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. 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.
- Sari: Suyash.dwivedi, CC BY-SA 4.0, source