Holi marks the end of winter and the return of spring. It is one of the oldest festivals in the Hindu calendar—some texts trace it back several centuries before the Common Era—celebrated throughout India around March, at the time of the full moon of Phalguna, the last month of the Hindu lunar calendar.
The night before, a bonfire is burned—Holika Dahan—recalling an ancient myth. The demon king Hiranyakashyap, convinced of his own invincibility, demanded to be worshipped as a god. His son Prahlad refused, remaining faithful to Vishnu. Enraged, the king commanded his sister Holika—a demoness rendered immune to fire by a blessing—to sit with the child in the flames. But the blessing turned against her: Holika perished in the blaze, while Prahlad emerged unscathed, protected by his devotion. A story of good’s victory over evil, of faith over arrogance, reenacted each year by lighting bonfires in the streets and courtyards, often accompanied by songs and prayers.
The following day brings an explosion of colors: gulal, powders, tinted water, thrown without distinction of rank or age. For one day, social hierarchies dissolve beneath the dust—employer and employee, neighbor and stranger, everyone finds themselves on equal footing, equally covered. The festival is traditionally accompanied by music, dance, and thandai, a spiced milk drink sometimes infused with bhang (a cannabis preparation), consumed ritually on this day in certain regions of northern India.
Depending on the region, Holi takes very different forms. In Delhi or Mathura, it’s often an urban festival, sometimes organized, sometimes commercial, aimed at visitors as much as at residents. In Gujarat and Maharashtra, they sometimes add the game of Dahi Handi, where young men form human pyramids to reach and break a pot of butter suspended above—a nod to Krishna’s childhood pranks.
But in certain villages of Braj—the region where Krishna grew up, between Mathura and Vrindavan—the festival retains a more ancient, rougher form, closer to the myth that gave it birth. Such is the case in Barsana and Nandgaon, where Lathmar Holi is played out each year.
