March 20, 2014: Although it didn’t feel like spring on Sunday, crowds celebrated the coming season in the Hindu tradition — by pelting one another with colorful powders.

The D/FW Hindu Temple in Irving has welcomed revelers to chase one another with bright powders at its Holi celebration for nearly 30 years. Its festival has been around for almost as long as the temple, organizers said.

Holi, the Festival of Colors, is observed on the last full-moon day of the lunar month.

Though Sunday’s cool weather may have deterred some from attending, more than 6,000 people participated. They created a cloud of color and then retreated indoors for vegetarian food and live Indian music.

Arlington resident Omesh Singh, 32, said he wanted to share the traditional celebration with family friends, who are 9 and 16. The young friends said they enjoyed tossing the powders, which Singh said represent the colors that emerge during spring.

“These kids grew up in our laps,” Singh said. “They start to see it culturally, and take it with them to college.”

Singh said his parents started bringing him to the temple when it was still operating out of a small trailer. He hopes to pass on the traditions and customs that he’s learned there to the next generation.

“There’s certain songs that take you back decades,” Singh said of Hindustani, traditional folk songs.

Jeannie Rana, 14, has celebrated Holi for the last seven years at D/FW Hindu Temple, which is the flagship temple for North Texas.

“I really like coming here and meeting other people,” the Flower Mound High School student said. “It’s just like a big family. It doesn’t matter if they’re strangers.”

She sat down to eat with her family and neighbourhood friends with yellow, purple and green streaking her face.

The culprit? Her 8-year-old brother.

“He’s the one who attacks first,” Jeannie said.

Her mother, Madhu Rana, 40, said she always enjoys bringing friends to the Holi festival because it’s a fun event with a universal message: “We should leave the bad feelings behind, and we should start new.”

After creating a Technicolor atmosphere by splattering one another with powder, the crowd gathered to watch the lighting of a bonfire, which is known as Holika Dahan.

In India and elsewhere, the fire traditionally marks the beginning of the festival, and colors are thrown the following day. But, Madhu said, because most people in North Texas won’t have Monday off for the holiday, the Irving temple celebrated before the fire.

For Madhu, the temple’s festivities are tame compared with how Holi is celebrated in her hometown of India, Mathura, India.

“You can’t even imagine,” Madhu said. “What they do there, they mix mud pits and throw people in there. We play for a month.”

Madhu said it’s a celebration of life, and it’s especially wild in Mathura, which many consider the birthplace of the deity Krishna.

Kamalini Singh, Singh’s mother, helped feed the crowd Sunday. She prepared 400 vada pav, potato with flour and spicy sauce on a bun.

The Arlington woman said she enjoys donating the food and mingling with others celebrating Holi.

“It’s part of what Hinduism is all about,” Kamalini said. “It’s about sharing. Today is about giving back to the temple.”