The Weekend It List: March 22-24

• True, there’s still a chill in the air, but the city is slowly waking up from its slumber. And that means you can begin to stop and smell the roses — literally.

  Get a head start on Sunday, when “Journey to Paradisios” takes over Macy’s. The annual flower show, with a blooms-in-space theme, sees the flagship store drop to 60 degrees. Expect strange plantings by the beauty counters and topiaries in the shapes of the sun, moon and stars.

  Planning for the extensive display began shortly after the close of last year’s show, from conception to sketching to installation. “What was beautiful about this idea was we didn’t find any great examples of it, we couldn’t find any images of flowers in space,” creative director Rick Pomer says.

  Another other-worldly experience awaits at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Its Orchid Show, open through April 27, features renditions of Singapore’s famous orchids and its vertical gardens, arches and innovative “super trees.” Make a night of it and, Saturdays this month, head to its Orchid Evenings for music, food and a taste of Singaporean culture.

  Or, take the season head-on with our spring bucket list.

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• Gray, it’s time to go away — the colorful celebration of Holi has begun, bringing cheer to the city during the first days of spring.

  The Indian holiday, which is based on the legend of Krishna and his desire to match the skin of his beloved Radha, is celebrated as an expression of love and joy all season long in the city. Parties typically require the throwing of powdered color (gulal) and water balloons.

  While Holi technically falls on March 20 to 21 this year, there are several options to toss gulal throughout the weekend, including a block party with smoke bombs at Frankie Goes to Bollywood on Spring Street, a “color blast” party at Dorrian’s Red Hand in Jersey City and Stage 48’s Holi brunch parties.

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• True crime fanatics, this one’s for you: A festival dedicated to the most intriguing cold cases.

  Stretching through the weekend, “Death Becomes Us” pieces together the rare opportunities to sit before the wrongly accused (Amanda Knox, Damien Echols, etc.) and the experts who’ve turned such cases into a Hollywood obsession.

  Murder cases that have captivated audiences will be up for debate — like that of the Zodiac Killer who terrorized California in the ’60s and ’70s, as well as the stories surrounding Echols, who spent 18 years on death row, and Knox, whose time imprisoned in Italy for the 2007 death of her roommate has been sensationalized in books, films and a television series.

  “What you can expect from this festival is people sharing a stage who’ve never shared a stage before,” director Jenn Tisdale says. “I would say it’s the wedding day of festivals, something old, something new, something borrowed and something gruesome.”

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• After his Oscar-winning “Get Out” debut, Jordan Peele returns with an equally as enticing horror flick.

  “Us” tells the story of the Wilson family — mostly following mom Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) — who suffered a mysterious childhood trauma, set on the Santa Cruz, California, boardwalk, that we witness unfold during the opening sequence. Decades later, Adelaide and her family are terrorized in their home by a clan cloaked in red that seems awfully familiar.

  Our critic gives it three stars, making it most likely worth the while for any Peele fan.

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Your time off is precious.

We happen to spend our on-the-clock hours combing through the many options NYC has to offer, so let us help you maximize those days off. Every week, we distill the very best the weekend has to offer.

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