The local Hare Krishna temple hosted its annual Holi Festival of Colors yesterday and thousands of people flocked from all over Utah to attend. I have been looking forward to this festival all month and there was NO way I was going to miss it. The Holi Festival celebrates the arrival of spring and the passing of winter, and tradition dictates that all grudges and negative feelings must be abandoned for a day of merriment. According to the Hare Krishna website, people are supposed to “bury their hatchets with a warm embrace and throw their worries to the wind”…and those worries are apparently represented by enough colorful powder to bury us all.
The festival began with singing and dancing, followed by a bonfire and ceremony in which an effigy of the evil demoness Holika was burned…and then we all counted down to the moment when we could throw around our multi-colored powder with reckless abandon. You would not believe the wonderful chaos that ensued! The air was so thick with powder that I couldn’t breathe…I had colors caked in my eyes, nose, and mouth…and the massive crowd trampled me like a herd of wild buffalo. It was fantastic!
We may have been gagging on powder and unable to open our eyes for a while, but we had so much fun...and we definitely looked festive!
We spent the next couple of hours dancing and singing along with the music (which wasn’t difficult to do, because apparently the Hare Krishnas just repeat the same words over and over to different tunes).
Not so sure about this weird food on my plate…
The Holi Festival of Colors was an unforgettable experience and I loved every minute of it! I was genuinely disappointed when the sun started to go down and the freezing temperatures forced us to leave…
…but I received quite a shock when I got home and saw this in the mirror:
Yikes! I hadn’t realized how truly colorful I was! My hair is still kinda pink (even after four shampoos), my eyes are still burning, and my fingernails appear to be stained purple…but it was SO worth it.
9 comments:
Looks like so much fun, not to mention colourful. They serve up really good vegie food. Next stop a Star Treck convention ...you already have the makeup!
PS. I have frut tingles infront of me, I just had to get petrol and they had an offer on friut tingles... I bought 2 packs in your honour!
I wanna go!! :o)
All I have to say is that you are one insane little chicky. And I love it. I totally admire your tenacity.
That looks like so much fun! awesome!
I can't think of a better way to bring in the spring. This was such a fun day... sorry again for throwing powder in your directly in your eye.... you're a trooper. love you sweets.
Must be a young person thing.
Wow! I had no idea that they had those here in Utah! Looks like quite the party! LOL...glad you had a fun time! :)
And Hermit is a friend from my blog...a really nice guy...in case you were wondering where he came from! :)
FUN!!!!!!
It looks like you tie-dyed your face!! :)
FUN! Hey, when are you coming back to Utah....ARE you coming back to Utah? Every time you leave I always think you're not coming back.
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