India: Holi ashes! Mashaan Holi celebrations drench Varanasi in colour

Revellers threw human ashes mixed with lively colours over each other as part of a cremation ceremony during traditional Holi festivities in Varanasi, in the northern Indian province of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday.

Attendees of the Holi celebrations sang and danced at Dashashwamedha Ghat temple on the Ganges River, flinging ashes up in the air to pay their respects to the dead and their families. The city is well known for its celebrations of life and death and is known as the holiest of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism, as well as one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities.