Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Holi Festival of Color

Holi Festival of Colors in Norwalk, CA 2013

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of participating in LA's first Holi Festival. If you aren't familiar with Holi, wikipedia describes it as:
Holi (Hindi: होली, Nepali: होली) is a religious spring festival celebrated by Hindus as a festival of colours. Every year, thousands of Hindus participate in the festival Holi. The festival has many purposes. First and foremost, it celebrates the beginning of the new season, spring. Originally, it was a festival that commemorated good harvests and the fertile land. Hindus believe it is a time of enjoying spring's abundant colors and saying farewell to winter. It also has a religious purpose, commemorating events present in Hindu mythology. Although it is the least religious holiday, it is probably one of the most exhilarating ones in existence. During this event, participants hold a bonfire, throw colored powder at each other, and celebrate wildly.
You will never be in the presence of so many hundreds of people in such a good mood any other time in your life! It was an amazing afternoon full of music, food, laughter and photo taking. So much laughter and free hug giving, all to celebrate the coming of Spring. For me personally, the day centered around the color throws. When you arrive, you can purchase packets of colored powder (safe and oh so lovely smelling) to throw however, wherever and whenever- but there were scheduled throws every hour on the hour. Count downs were led by some of the talent like my new fav MC Yogi. 10 seconds and BAM the world gets covered in psychedelic color love! This went on from 11am til 8pm, with yoga and live music keeping the revelers in high spirits as well.  Hopefully this is the first of many years of Holi in Los Angeles, it is a sight to be seen and enjoyed!

Hare Krishna!

Find the full set on Flickr

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