Holi
- 1A Hindu spring festival celebrated with lively, noisy street parties in which people throw colored powders over one another.
By noon on Holi, the whole town square had turned into a haze of red and green powder.
Families gather for Holi to smear bright colors on friends and strangers alike.
Note
A festival name English borrowed from Hindi, which took it from Sanskrit. Early English writers spelled it by ear: Anne Katharine Curteis Elwood's Narrative of a Journey Overland from England (1830) calls it "the Hoolie or Spring Festival," places it in March, and describes sepoys parading and performing. Today it is a capitalized proper name that takes no article: people gather on Holi, or travel home for Holi.
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Origin
Borrowed from Hindi होली (holī), which comes from Sanskrit होली (holī).