New Delhi, IRNA -- 16 Holi revellers drowned while a man died in a clash as festival of colours, heralding advent of summer, was celebrated across India Wednesday with people applying ?gulal? on each other, gorging on sweets, singing and dancing to songs and drum beats.

However, tragedy struck when seven youths in Kanpur drowned in two separate incidents while taking bath in the Ganga River after playing Holi. Six teenagers drowned in Andhra Pradesh?s Nizamabad district and at Kukatpally area of Hyderabad when they went to bath after Holi celebrations.

In Bengal, three persons drowned in separate incidents in Howrah district while washing themselves in the pond after taking part in the revelry.

In another incident in the state one person was killed and five others were injured when two groups clashed while playing Holi in Nadia district.

There was gusto and bonhomie as merrymakers, with clothes drenched in myriad hues, thronged lanes and narrow alleys, giving a go-by to old squabbles and distributed sweets.

People embraced each other wishing ?Happy Holi? as unseen hands squirted them with a well-timed coloured water spray. Water-filled balloons were lobbed from rooftops and balconies as cries of ?Holi Hai? reverberated the streets.

Children enjoyed the most as they sprayed colored water using water guns and hurled water-filled balloons on people from their rooftops.

President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh greeted people on Holi and expressed hope that the festival will strengthen faith in national values and promote oneness and harmony.

Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde celebrated Holi with BSF youth at an outpost near the Indo-Pak border in Rajasthan?s Jaisalmer district.

The festival was celebrated by the Hindu community and security forces with traditional fervour and gaiety in Kashmir valley.

Holi is a religious spring festival celebrated by Hindus as a festival of colors. It is primarily observed in India and Nepal. It is also observed by the minority Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan as well as the countries with large Indic diaspora populations following Hinduism.

As per the Hindu calendar, Holi is celebrated on the Phalgun Purnima which comes in February or March in the Gregorian Calendar.

Holi festival may be celebrated with various names and people of different states might be following different traditions. But, what makes Holi so unique and special is the spirit of it which remains the same throughout the country and even across the globe, wherever it is celebrated.

Entire country wears a festive look when it is time for the Holi celebration. Market places get abuzz with activity as frenzied shoppers start making preparations for the festival. Heaps of various hues of gulal and abeer can be seen on the roadside days before the festival. Pichkaris in innovative and modern design too come up every year to lure the children who wish to collect them as Holi memorabilia and of course, to drench everybody in the town.

Womenfolks too start making early preparations for the Holi Festival as they cook loads of ?gujiya?, ?mathri? and ?papri? for the family and also for the relatives. At some places specially in the north the women also make ?papads? and potato chips at this time.

A Hindu festival, the Holi has various legends associated with it. The foremost is the legend of demon King Hiranyakashyap, who demanded everybody in his kingdom to worship him, but his pious son, Prahlad, became a devotee of Lord Vishnu. Hiranyakashyap wanted his son that he would be killed. He asked his sister Holika to enter a blazing fire with Prahlad in her lap as Holika had a boon which made her immune to the fire. The story goes on telling us that Prahlad was saved by Lord Himself for his extreme devotion while the evil-minded Holika was burnt to ashes, for her boon worked only when she entered the fire alone.

Since that time, the people light a bonfire, called Holika on the eve of the Holi Festival and celebrate the ?victory of good over evil? and also the ?triumph of devotion to God?. Children take special delight in the tradition and this has another legend attached to it. It says that there was once an ogress called Dhundhi who used to trouble the children in the Kingdom of Prithu. She was chased away by the children on the Day of Holi. Therefore, the children are allowed to play pranks at the time of ?Holika Dahan?.