8 March 2012Last updated at 18:02

In pictures: Holi festival of colours

Holi at the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan town

Holi, the Hindu festival of colours, is being celebrated across India on Thursday. The festival comes at the end of the winter season and marks the beginning of spring.

The biggest celebrations take place in the temples of Vrindavan, a town in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where, according to legend, the Hindu god Krishna played Holi with his consort Radha.

In the temples, devotees pray and face the deity as coloured powder is thrown on them and jets of coloured water are sprayed. Holi celebrations in Vrindavan continue for days.

In Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal state, traditional dancers perform and throw coloured powder during Holi which is celebrated there as Vasantotsav - the spring festival.

The festival is hugely popular with the young and students begin playing colour several days before the actual Holi.

Sellers of coloured powder and water canons do brisk business during the festival. Here, a teacher holds a plate with coloured powder before hurling it on her students in the western city of Ahmedabad.

In Amritsar, these devotees dressed up as the Hindu god Krishna (left and right) and goddess Radha (centre) as they played with colours at a temple.

The festival kicked off on Wednesday night with bonfires lit outside homes and on street corners.

Holi was also celebrated in other South Asian countries, including in the Pakistani city of Karachi. Here, 12-year-old Sita poses with her face smeared in colours.

The festival is widely celebrated in Nepal which has a large Hindu population. Here, a boy in Kathmandu jumps in the air as he celebrates Holi.

Many tourists also joined in the festivities on the streets of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.

Police take notes speaking to children poisoned by dyes during Holi

Holi was not fun for everyone involved - these children were hospitalised in Mumbai suffering an allergic reaction to the coloured powder and water.

Children are treated in hospital after being poisoned during Holi celebrations

Over 160 people needed hospital treatment in Mumbai. Police believe they were poisoned by chemicals in one batch of coloured powder.

India

In pictures: Holi festival of colours

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