The Frame
A photo blog of world events by Sacbee.com Assistant Director of Multimedia Tim Reese.
Subscribe to feed Subscribe to this blog's feed
March 1, 2010
Holi, the festival of color
The tradition of playing with colors on Holi draws its roots from a legend of Radha and the Hindu God Krishna. It is believed that young Krishna was jealous of Radha's fair complexion since he himself was very dark. After questioning his mother Yashoda on the darkness of his complexion, Yashoda, teasingly asked him to color Radha's face in which ever color he wanted. In a mischievous mood, Krishna applied color on Radha's face. The tradition of applying color on one's beloved is religiously followed still, today. (28 images)

Follow The Frame on Twitter at sacbee_theframe

A Hindu priest tosses dyed color powder known as Gulal powder, passing the blessings of Lord Krishna to Hindu devotees as they play with color during Holi celebrations at the Bankey Bihari Temple on Feb. 26, in Vrindavan, India. Getty Images / Daniel Berehulak


holi02.jpg
Hindu devotees play with color during Holi celebrations at the Bankey Bihari Temple on Feb. 26, in Vrindavan, India. Getty Images / Daniel Berehulak



holi03.jpg
A Hindu devotees prays after having played with color during Holi celebrations at the Bankey Bihari Temple on Feb. 27, in Vrindavan, India. Getty Images / Daniel Berehulak



holi04.jpg
Hindu devotees play with color during Holi celebrations at the Bankey Bihari Temple on Feb. 27, in Vrindavan, India. Getty Images / Daniel Berehulak



holi05.jpg
Hindu devotees play with color during Holi celebrations at the Bankey Bihari Temple on Feb. 27, in Vrindavan, India. Getty Images / Daniel Berehulak



holi06.jpg
Hindu devotees play with color during Holi celebrations at the Bankey Bihari Temple on Feb. 27, in Vrindavan, India. Getty Images / Daniel Berehulak



holi07.jpg
Dye covers the foot of a Hindu devotees as others play with color during Holi celebrations at the Bankey Bihari Temple on Feb. 27, in Vrindavan, India. Getty Images / Daniel Berehulak



holi08.jpg
Hindu devotees play with color during Holi celebrations at the Bankey Bihari Temple on Feb. 28, in Vrindavan, India. Getty Images / Daniel Berehulak



holi09.jpg
A Hindu devotees prays as others play with color during Holi celebrations at the Bankey Bihari Temple on Feb. 28, in Vrindavan, India. Getty Images / Daniel Berehulak



holi10.jpg
A girl smeared with color throws colored powder as she joins in celebrations of Holi, the Hindu festival of color, in Vrindavan, 140 kilometres from New Delhi, India, Sunday, Feb 28. Vrindavan is famous for Holi celebration, where according to legend, Hindu god Krishna played Holi with his consort Radha. AP / Manish Swarup



holi11.jpg
People throw colors as they celebrate "Holi," the festival of color, at the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan, 140 kilometers (87 miles) from New Delhi, India, Sunday, Feb. 28. AP / Manish Swarup



holi12.jpg
Devotees throw color as they celebrate Holi, the Hindu festival of color, at the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan, about 140 kilometers (87 miles) from New Delhi, India, Sunday, Feb. 28. AP / Manish Swarup



holi13.jpg
A priest throws colored holy water on the Devotees smeared with color as they all celebrate Holi, the Hindu festival of color, at the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan, 140 kilometres from New Delhi, India, Sunday, Feb. 28. AP / Manish Swarup



holi14.jpg
A devotee collects colored powder spread on the floor to be thrown back on devotees again to celebrate Holi, the Hindu festival of color, at the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan, 140 kilometres from New Delhi, India, Sunday, Feb. 28. AP / Manish Swarup



holi15.jpg
Indian youths cover each other with colored powder while celebrating Holi, 'the Festival of colors' at the historical Durgiana Temple in Amritsar on Feb. 28.AFP / Getty Images / Narinder Nanu



holi16.jpg
Indian youth cover each other with colored powder and water while celebrating Holi, 'the Festival of colors' in Hyderabad on Feb. 28. AFP / Getty Images / Noah Seelam



holi17.jpg
An Indian woman gestures as 'Aabir' a colored dust is put on her face as she celebrates Vasantotsav, 'the Festival of Spring' in Kolkata, on Feb. 28. Vasantotsav, as the spring festival is called in Bengal, is celebrated in the rest of India as 'Holi', the festival of colors. AFP / Getty Images / Deshakalyan Chowdhury



holi18.jpg
Indian girls dunk colored water on each other as they celebrate Vasantotsav, the Festival of Spring, in Kolkata, on Feb. 28. AFP / Getty Images / Deshakalyan Chowdhury



holi19.jpg
Indian girls play with 'Aabir' a colored dust as they celebrate Vasantotsav, the Festival of Spring, in Kolkata, on Feb. 28. AFP / Getty Images / Deshakalyan Chowdhury



holi20.jpg
Indian youth cover each other with colored powder while celebrating Holi, the Festival of colors, at the historical Durgiana Temple in Amritsar on Feb. 28. AFP / Getty Images / Narinder Nanu



holi21.jpg
Indian women smear colored 'gullal' power on each other's faces as they celebrate Holi in Allahabad on Feb. 28. Holi, also called the Festival of colors, is a popular Hindu spring festival observed in India at the end of winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month, which usually falls in the later part of February or in March. AFP / Getty Images / Diptendu Dutta



holi22.jpg
Indian sadhus, Hindu holy men, smear colored 'gullal' power on each other's faces as they celebrate Holi in Allahabad on Feb. 28. AFP / Getty Images / Diptendu Dutta



holi23.jpg
Indian kids smeared with colors look on as they celebrate 'Holi,' the Indian festival of colors, in Calcutta, India, Sunday, Feb. 28. AP / Sucheta Das



holi24.jpg
An Indian girl reacts as others throw color powder at her as part of celebrating "Holi" in the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, India, Saturday, Feb. 27. AP / Biswaranjan Rout



holi25.jpg
A tourist smeared with colors shoots photographs of children celebrating "Holi," the Indian festival of colors, in Calcutta, India, Sunday, Feb. 28. AP / Bikas Das



holi26.jpg
Devotees smeared with color celebrate Holi, the Hindu festival of color, at the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan, 140 kilometres from New Delhi, India, Sunday, Feb. 28. AP / Manish Swarup



holi27.jpg
Devotees smeared with color throw color on each other as they celebrate Holi, the Hindu festival of color, in Vrindavan, 140 kilometers (87.5 miles) from New Delhi, India, Sunday, Feb. 28. AP / Manish Swarup



holi28.jpg
People are seen smeared in colors on Wed., Feb. 24, as they celebrate Holi, the Indian festival of colors in Mathura, India. AP



Posted by
3:00 AM 9:48 PM | Comments

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

About Comments

Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.

What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com

Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)

Here are some rules of the road:

• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.

• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.

• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.

• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and send him a direct message.

• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.

• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.

• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.

• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.

You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.

If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to feedback@sacbee.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.

hide comments
blog comments powered by Disqus