Rachael Caringella | Talk2TheTrees: festival of colors

This year we celebrated the first days of Spring at the Holi Festival again.

I actually hate being dirty,

and the panic of not being able to breath after the countdown is frightening.

But I love the Festival of Colors.

If you are new to my blog, and miss my post last year, here is a little about the festival:

Holi is a religious festival celebrated by the Hindu Religion that welcomes spring.

People through scented and colored powder into the air and on each other.

There is music and dancing and bonfires.

Originally, it was a festival that commemorated good harvests and the fertile land. In addition to celebrating the coming of spring, Holi has even greater purposes. Hindus believe it is a time of enjoying spring's abundant colors and saying farewell to winter.

Most of the people who attend the Festival here in Utah are BYU students and Highschool students.

It's actually become a bit of an annoyance to see facebook flooded with photos of people going to a festival they know nothing about. People go in silly costumes, and completely trash the temple and the grounds. I even heard one person say "I wish I could be Jewish, so I could celebrate like this."

I rolled my eyes.

But then the festival coordinator walked onto stage while the band behind him was setting up.

He explained the festival a little bit, and said he knew the majority of the crowd wasn't Hindu.

He said that wasn't the point. The point was that we were all together celebrating Spring.

Then he asked us to hug 20 strangers and tell them we love them.

Because that's what this life is all about..

And in the end, God won't ask us what religion we were, or what our job was.

We would be asked if we loved our fellow man.

This photo was before the actual count down.

Thank you kyle for photo bombing another photo,

and thank you for doing it when I had my slr.. instead of my expensive film.

After the throwing.

I actually had to re-bleach my hair.

The colored powder (which is just cornstarch) stained my blonde a nasty green.

And here is my video from last year.. I didn't get video this year.
I actually put my camera away and danced.

There is surely cause for celebration.

Two things:

Spring is here. (Though it may not look or feel like it out here in Utah.)

It is also my Birthday today.

There was a celebration. It wasn't really for my birthday, but I like to think that's one main reason I went. I was never able to go the previous years.

I mentioned the Holi Festival in my last vlog. Holi is a Hindu religious festival celebrated at the passing of winter on the last full moon day. People get together, throw colors, have bonfires, sing, dance and chant mantras. In India, colored water is typically thrown along with colored powder. Here in Utah, they throw colored powder. Throwing water at each other 30 degree weather might make a lot of people sick.

So many people go to the Festival of Colors each year. This is the time of year when everyone in Utah's facebook news feed is filled with pictures of people covered in color. It gets to be a little much, but going to the festival is a beautiful thing.

I put together a short video about my experience. Please forgive the terrible quality and camera shake.