Men celebrating holi

What is Holi Festival? – The Top 10 questions on Google answered by our experts


  1. What is Holi Festival? Holi is a Hindu spring festival originally celebrated across India and Nepal.  As Hinduism has spread across the globe, so has the Holi Festival.  Also called the Festival of Colours, events are normally held around the start of March each year to celebrate the coming of spring.
  2. When is the Holi Festival in 2018? Holi Festival takes place around March 2nd 2018.  Colourful events will take place globally around this time.  The 2019 date is March 21.
  3. Why is colour powder used as part of the Holi Festival of Colours?  The clue is in the name. Thought originally to be part of banishing away the winter blues and celebrating the start of spring, the throwing of colour powder has become synonymous with Holi festivities.
  4. What is Holi colour powder made from?  Originally pigment made from natural plant-based dyes like turmeric was mixed with corn starch to create the dried colour powder.  Now a global phenomenon, the demand for colour powder means that modern manufacturing processes have been introduced to meet stringent safety standards and vast quantities required.  We alone sold 60 tonnes of colour powder in 2016.
  5. How do I make my own Holi powder?  There’s no secret recipe, it’s just corn starch and coloured dye. However, recent times have brought about strict control over the production and use of Holi colour powder, especially for events held in the UK. Ministry of Colours hold EN71 certification for our colour powders.
  6. What do I need to run a Holi event? The rule of thumb is anything colourful will work. You don't need a huge, organised event to celebrate Holi - gather your friends and family together and play Holi at home with our colour powder. Remember we are blowing away the winter cobwebs here, so the brighter the better.  Alongside the obvious colour powder, you could perhaps look at introducing some modern touches with neon sunglasses, leis and colour hand cannons?
  7. What colours can I get the colour powder in?  Traditionally the colours of powder were restricted to what could be produced with natural dyes.  With the introduction of modern manufacturing processes the range of available colours has grown to include pretty much every colour of the rainbow. 
  8. How do I clean colour powder off my clothes?  The straight forward answer is you can’t 100% guarantee clean clothes after attending a Holi colour powder event.  Perhaps wear clothes that you don’t mind a stain or two on? Many people wear white t-shirts to colour powder events, and use their clothes as a blank canvas upon which they can paint with the colour powder.
  9. Can you get colour powder off the floor?  If you are running an event, it’s best to make sure you have a clean-up plan in place.  The powder will leave a temporary stain on surfaces, but it does disappear in time.  Mother nature is the best cleaner, with a good rain shower cleaning pretty much everything away.  Perhaps you could consider covering the floor with a plastic sheet where you think intensive colour throwing will take place?  We have also heard of event organisers hiring leaf blowers to collect together the bulk of the post event powder.
  10. Can I use the Holi colour powder inside?  Remember you will need to clean up the mess, perhaps it’s best your colour powder is thrown outside?  There are also doubts over the safety of some coloured powder brands when brought into contact with live electricity.