Where Ash Meets Colour: Inside Varanasi’s Mystical Masan Holi
Where Ash Meets Colour: Inside Varanasi’s Mystical Masan Holi
Where Ash Meets Colour: Inside Varanasi’s Mystical Masan Holi
In the ancient city of Varanasi, where life and death share the same sacred riverbanks and time seems suspended along the ghats of the Ganga, Holi unfolds in a way found nowhere else in the world.
This is Masan Holi — the Festival of Ashes.
As the city celebrates Rang Bhari Ekadashi, marking the joyful return of Lord Shiva with Maa Parvati to Kailash after their divine union on Mahashivratri, Varanasi bursts into colour. Streets fill with devotees, music, dance, and clouds of vibrant powder. It is a moment of cosmic celebration, symbolising love, creation, and divine harmony.
Yet, according to sacred lore, Shiva’s closest companions — the ganas, spirits, ascetics, and beings who dwell in cremation grounds — remain absent from this colourful festivity.
To honour them, tradition says Lord Shiva descends the following day to the masan — the cremation ground — where Holi is played not with colours, but with ashes from funeral pyres.
This rare ritual, known as Masan ki Holi, transforms a place of mourning into a realm of divine celebration.
Amid rising smoke, glowing embers, chanting sadhus, and the rhythmic beat of the damru, participants smear sacred ash on their bodies. The act carries deep symbolism: ashes represent renunciation, impermanence, and liberation from worldly illusion — a reminder that all forms eventually dissolve into nothingness.
Here, fire becomes prayer. Ash becomes blessing.
The striking contrast between Rang Bhari Holi and Masan Holi reflects the dual nature of existence itself. One celebrates life, love, and Shiva’s union with Shakti, immersed in the play of the material world (Moh Maya). The other honours Shiva as the supreme ascetic — the lord of destruction and transformation — detached from earthly attachments.
Together, these traditions teach a timeless truth: joy and sorrow, creation and dissolution, colour and ash are inseparable threads of the cosmic cycle.
In Varanasi, even death dances with devotion.
This year, Masan Holi will be observed on February 27 at Harishchandra Ghat, followed by celebrations at Manikarnika Ghat on February 28, drawing devotees, ascetics, and spiritual seekers from across India and beyond.
Where Ash Meets Colour: Inside Varanasi’s Mystical Masan Holi
