The morning of colours, the day after Holika Dahan.
Tuesday, 23 March 2027·Chaitra Krishna Pratipada - the day after Holika Dahan·Mumbai, Maharashtra
Playing with colours, visiting, and celebration through the day.
Alternative auspicious window for greetings and family gatherings.
Rangwali Holi, called Dhulivandan in Maharashtra, is the festival of colours celebrated the morning after Holika Dahan. It is a day of colour, music, forgiveness and the welcoming of spring, celebrated during the day's auspicious Choghadiya blocks. Old quarrels are set aside as people smear one another with gulal.
Colour dissolves distinctions of caste, age and status for a day; it celebrates love, renewal and the reconciliation of the community as winter yields to spring.
To rejoice in Krishna and Radha's leela of colours, to welcome spring, and to renew bonds through forgiveness and play.
The play of colours recalls the young Krishna of Braj, who - self-conscious about his dark complexion beside the fair Radha - was told by his mother Yashoda to colour Radha's face however he pleased. His playful smearing of Radha and the gopis with colour grew into the beloved custom of Holi. The festival also marks the arrival of spring, the flush of new blossoms, and a communal loosening of hierarchy where all are equal beneath the colour.
On the morning and day after Holika Dahan, during the day's auspicious Choghadiya blocks shown above.
It recalls young Krishna colouring Radha and the gopis in Braj - the origin of the play of colours.
The Maharashtrian name for the day of colours following Holika Dahan - 'the honouring of dust/colour'.
Braj celebrates Holi over many days with famous forms like Barsana's Lathmar Holi, drawing pilgrims from across the world.