These amazing photographs give a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘painting the town red’.

Hindu men and women have welcomed the beginning of spring by hurling coloured powder at one another during the annual Holi festival in India.

Celebrations start with a bonfire where people gather, sing and dance – before participants unleash a free-for-all style powder assault on anyone and everyone in the designated colour zones.

Some use the powder dry, throwing it around and leaving a trail of colour in their wake.

Others mix the powder with water to decorate their friends and family members, as well as people they have never met.

When the colour bombing is over in Nandgoan, Hindu devotees covered head to toe in in powder pray as they arrive at the Nandagram Temple.

The festival, which started as a chance to meet others, play, laugh and repair relationships, is now one of the biggest in the world.

In recent years it has spread among non-Hindus in many parts of south-east Asia, as well as to parts of Europe, North America and Australia.
Holi is held every year before spring on the last full moon day of the lunar month.

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