Stunning spectacle flags off India’s colourful spring festival Holi

A spectacular celebration at Mathura, popularly believed to be the birthplace of Hindu god Lord Krishna, flagged off India’s colourful festival Holi.
Mathura and its twin city Vrindavan, traditionally host the first popular celebration of Holi.

A large number of devotees gathered at the campus of the majestic Shri Krishna Janmasthan Temple on February 26 to celebrate the festival with colours, songs and dance. A few came dressed as popular Hindu gods and were showered with flowers on the stage.

Many women could be seen mockingly striking men with sticks in a light-hearted ritual of ‘lath-mari holi’ or beating-with-sticks-holi.
‘Lath-mari holi’ is celebrated at two nearby towns, Barsana and Nandgaon, two days prior to the event at Mathura.

The women of Barsana beat the men of Nandgaon with sticks in a mock re-enactment of a legend in which Krishna was beaten by his lover Radha’s friends after he teased them.

Holi, a spring festival, which is played with colours and celebrates love, unfolds over the next few days in large parts of North India.