Holi: Forget Saint Patrick's Day! Google India celebrates festival with multicoloured doodle

Google Doodle celebrates the festival of Holi

As days of celebration go, you would have thought the whole world turned green on 17 March to mark St Patrick’s Day.

India will certainly be awash with a greenish hue. And pinks, reds, yellows, blues and every colour under the sun as the country’s 800,000,000-strong population of Hindus celebrates the festival of Holi.

The holiday, in which people cover each other in bright colours, distribute sweets and squirt water at one another, marks the beginning of spring and the triumph of good over evil.

And Google has introduced a splash of colour on to its Indian home page with a doodle marking the annual festival of colours. The doodle itself has only appeared on the Indian version of the site, with the UK running a Saint Patrick’s Day version.

The public holiday is celebrated mainly in India, Nepal and other regions of the world with significant populations of Hindus or people of Indian origin. It falls on the last full moon day of the lunar month at the end of winter.

Celebrations have also become increasingly popular in the UK.