The morning after: streets and courtyards dissolve into color as gulal and water are thrown between friends, family, and strangers alike. In Barsana and Nandgaon, Krishna's playful courtship of Radha is re-enacted as Lathmar Holi, where women mock-charge the men with sticks.
फाल्गुन कृष्ण प्रतिपदा
The festival is also read as marking the arrival of spring and the last full-moon harvest before summer, giving it an agricultural layer beneath its devotional and mythological ones.
Bhang-infused thandai is traditionally shared in North India as part of the day's festivities. The color-throwing itself has no fixed ritual form and varies enormously by region, from gentle dabs of gulal to full water-balloon battles.