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When Is Holi In 2016?

It's time to welcome spring!
Arti Patel
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This year Holi, or the festival of colour, begins on March 23.

While the holiday on March 23 is actually called Holika Dahan, Holi officially follows on March 24.

It's a festival that marks the end of winter and the celebration of spring, a religious holiday embraced by music and of course, coloured powder. On Holika Dahan, there is often a bonfire that is used to symbolize the burning of evil spirits, according to About Travel.

On Holi, families and friends gather to play with vibrant coloured powder which represents the start of a new season, and although the celebration is much larger in India, you can find Hindus taking part in the festivities at local temples.

The powder, which can be made from a variety of ingredients depending on the region, can also be made at home with turmeric powder, dried rose petals and flour, My Little Moppet notes.

And while this may not be the side of Holi non-Hindus tend to see, in the last few years, coloured powder has been the main attractions of non-religious events like the Colour Run or Run or Dye. As Brown Girl magazine reports, it's the perfect example of how the traditional side of Holi can sometimes be ignored.

"I can bemoan the misuse of Holi, the profiting off our culture and the further sexualization of it, but I think worst of all is that it doesn’t give us the chance to share Holi properly," writer Nadya Agrawal notes. "Personally, I love it when I can bring my non-Desi friends to the annual campus Holi function. I can show them a part of my heart and an aspect of my identity as a strong brown woman."

Watch the video above to see Holi in action and check out some vibrant photos below.

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Celebrating Holi 2015
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Indian revellers dance as during Holi celebrations in Hyderabad on March 5, 2015. Holi, also called the Festival of Colours, is a popular Hindu spring festival observed in India at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month. (credit:NOAH SEELAM/AFP/Getty Images)
(02 of14)
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Nepalese revellers with painted faces gather in celebration of the Holi festival in Kathmandu on March 5, 2015. The Holi festival of colours is a riotous celebration of the coming of spring and falls on the day of the full moon in March every year. (credit:PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP/Getty Images)
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Indian revellers play with color during Holi celebrations in Hyderabad on March 5, 2015. (credit:NOAH SEELAM/AFP/Getty Images)
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Indian children, smeared with gulal-coloured powder, smile at the camera during Holi celebrations on March 4, 2015 in New Delhi, India. Festival of colours, fun and frolic Holi bridges the social gap and renew sweet relationships. It is also called Fagun, Vasant Utsav or spring festival as it falls on Phalgun Purnima which comes in February end or early March. (credit:Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
(05 of14)
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Students of Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya celebrate the festival Holi on March 4, 2015 in Indore, India. Festival of colors, fun and frolic Holi bridges the social gap and renew sweet relationships. (credit:Shankar Mourya/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
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Indian revellers dance as water is sprayed during Holi celebrations in Hyderabad on March 5, 2015. (credit:NOAH SEELAM/AFP/Getty Images)
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An Indian child buying a water gun from roadside vendors ahead of the occasion of Holi festival on March 4, 2015 in New Delhi, India. Festival of colours, fun and frolic Holi bridges the social gap and renew sweet relationships. It is also called Fagun, Vasant Utsav or spring festival as it falls on Phalgun Purnima which comes in February end or early March. (credit:Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
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Indian women tie sacred thread and offer milk and water as they worship around a pile of wood on the eve of Holi or 'festival of colours' in New Delhi on March 5, 2015. Celebrations begin from the eve of Holi with the ritual of Holika Dahan. Holika Dahan, or the burning of demon Holika, is the vital ritual during Holi festival. On the night before Holi, people collect wooden logs and waste materials like broken furniture, clothes, etcetera from their homes, gather it together to burn Holika and this bonfire epitomizes the victory of good over evil. (credit:PRAKASH SINGH/AFP/Getty Images)
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A man covered his face of gulal (coloured powders). Youth of Kolkata busy celebrating Holi along with other parts of country. Holi, the festival of colors, is one of the biggest Hindu holidays celebrated across India. (credit:Saikat Paul/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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An Indian Hindu devotee from Barsana prostrates amid colors as he prays at the Nandagram temple, famous for Lord Krishna and his brother Balram, during Lathmar holi festival, in Nandgaon, India, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015. (credit:AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
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Indian Hindu women from Nandgaon village beat the shield of a man from Barsana during Lathmar festival celebrations in Nandgaon, India, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015. During Lathmar Holi the women of Nandgaon, the hometown of Krishna, beat the men from Barsana, the legendary hometown of Radha, consort of Hindu God Krishna, with wooden sticks in response to their teasing as they depart the town. (credit:AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
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A Hindu widow lies on a sludgy ground filled with a mixture of colored powder, water and flower petals during celebrations to mark Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, at the Meera Sahabhagini Widow Ashram in Vrindavan, India, Tuesday, March 3, 2015. After their husband's deaths many of the women in the ashrams have been banished by their families, for supposedly bringing bad luck, while some move voluntarily to and around the town where devotees believe Lord Krishna was born. (credit:AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
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Indian Hindu widows dance with Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of non-governmental organization Sulabh International, as they celebrate Holi at the Meera Sahabhagini Widow Ashram in Vrindavan, India, Tuesday, March 3, 2015. The widows, many of whom at times have lived desperate lives in the streets of the temple town, celebrated the Hindu festival of colors at the ashram. (credit:AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)
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Indian Hindu devotees smeared with colors, sing songs at the Nandagram temple famous for Lord Krishna and his brother Balram, during Lathmar holi festival, in Nandgaon, India, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015. (credit:AP Photo/Saurabh Das)

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