Masan Holi festival takes place in Varanasi

Thousands of Hindu devotees flocked to Manikarnika Ghat riverbank to celebrate this year’s Masan Holi festival. Locals and visitors danced and smeared each other with the ash of pyres, while men played drums and carried offerings on stretchers. Varanasi is well known for its celebrations of life and death, and is the holiest of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism.