This year we attended the Holi Festival at the Hare Krishna Hindu temple in Spanish Fork, Utah.
Little bit of background. ...
Celebrated in India (and Utah) each year the Holi festival commemorates the victory of good over evil. This is brought about by the burning and destruction of the demoness named Holika. This was enabled through unwavering devotion to the Hindu god of preservation, Lord Vishnu. Holi got its name as the "Festival of Colors" from Lord Krishna, a re-incarnation of Lord Vishnu, who liked to play pranks on the village girls by drenching them in water and colors.
The festival marks the end of winter and the abundance of the upcoming spring harvest season.
We throw our colors and dreams into the air and the God of Spring takes them.
It was an interesting and fun experience. We went with a couple friends early in the morning to save our spot. We bought our "colors" and walked around the temple grounds until the festivities started. We went inside the temple and watched men play their instruments and chant. The tune was stuck in our head all day! People danced, clapped and jumped around; once the ground started to shake we decided to leave. 
This is our group outside the temple.
This is the "before" picture when there was only a few people there.
Zach was so excited when he got feed one of the llamas. I on the other hand watched Amazing Race recently and was to nervous that one would spit on me, I stayed behind the camera.
We picked our spot on the large grassy knoll and enjoyed lunch together before the crowds of people arrived. Taking in the warm sunshine of spring and having fun with our friends. Then HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of people came! It was insane!!! We became so tightly packed sitting on the grass that no one could move. All the brother (minus 1) found us so we took a little family picture. Hi Mom!
We got a little restless sitting there so long that we already started playing with the chalk we bought. We watched women dance for us and were told the story of the Holi festival. Then with a large countdown and many screaming people the color throwing began! Within seconds of throwing there was large enough chalk cloud to block out the sun! We continued to throw chalk blindly until we all ran out, the dust settled and people reappeared.
We finished off our evening with a LONG shower and met up later for a bonfire. Utah has finally started to see warm weather and we decided to take advantage of it. Never in my life did I think I would be excited for 50 degree weather. Oh Utah, what have you done to me?!?
HAPPY SPRING!
Love,
The Lymans
ps.... I'm still finding purple dust everywhere.
This is our group outside the temple.This is the "before" picture when there was only a few people there.
Zach was so excited when he got feed one of the llamas. I on the other hand watched Amazing Race recently and was to nervous that one would spit on me, I stayed behind the camera.
We picked our spot on the large grassy knoll and enjoyed lunch together before the crowds of people arrived. Taking in the warm sunshine of spring and having fun with our friends. Then HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of people came! It was insane!!! We became so tightly packed sitting on the grass that no one could move. All the brother (minus 1) found us so we took a little family picture. Hi Mom!
We got a little restless sitting there so long that we already started playing with the chalk we bought. We watched women dance for us and were told the story of the Holi festival. Then with a large countdown and many screaming people the color throwing began! Within seconds of throwing there was large enough chalk cloud to block out the sun! We continued to throw chalk blindly until we all ran out, the dust settled and people reappeared.
We finished off our evening with a LONG shower and met up later for a bonfire. Utah has finally started to see warm weather and we decided to take advantage of it. Never in my life did I think I would be excited for 50 degree weather. Oh Utah, what have you done to me?!?
HAPPY SPRING!
Love,
The Lymans
ps.... I'm still finding purple dust everywhere.
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