Students, with their faces smeared in colored powder, celebrate Holi, also known as the festival of colors, at a college in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh March 2. The traditional event heralds the beginning of spring and will be celebrated all over India on March 8.

A student, with her face smeared in colored powder, celebrates Holi, also known as the festival of colors, at a college in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh on March 2.

Indian villagers smear themselves with colors during the Lathmar Holi festival at the Radha Rani temple in Barsana, on March 2.

Indian villagers smear themselves with colours during the Lathmar Holi festival at the Radha Rani temple in Barsana, on March 2. During the Lathmar Holi festival, the women of Barsana, the legendary hometown of Radha, consort of Hindu God Krishna, attack the men from Nandgaon, the hometown of Hindu God Krishna, with wooden sticks in response to their efforts to put color on them.

Indian women beat men with wooden sticks during the Lathmar Holi festival in Barsana, on March 2.