Hare Krishna!

I am always amazed at the culture I have experienced here in Utah. Of course, it is not as amazing or diverse as say New York City, but there is so much more culture here than I thought there would be. (Although I'm still looking for an phenomenal Vietnamese restaurant, let me know if you know any)

For example, there is a Hindu temple in Spanish Fork, only twenty minutes away! So yesterday, I had the experience of going to the temple to participate in Holi, a Hindu festival celebrating Spring. Of course, the weather was cloudy and cold with an ever threatening chance that it might rain. But despite the gloomy weather, it was one heck of a party.

After driving around rural Utah, trying to find the Temple, Jiffer, Kevin, Ali, and I finally found a parking spot and started the 2 mile hike to the temple. We had no clue what we were getting ourselves into. We just threw together some crappy jeans and white t-shirts (except Ali, his was in the wash, so he wore blue) and came to experience. Before we even reached the temple, the Holi celebration began. To celebrate Holi, people throw colored chalk at each other. So as we climbed the hill, the people leaving were hitting us with pink and teal and yellow chalk. By the time we reached the entrance, we were already slightly colorful.

But that would soon change. The temple grounds had several pavilions, one of which had a band singing spiritual songs. In front of the pavilion/stage was a humongous crowd of multicolor people chanting and waving their hands in the air. On several instances, there was crowd-surfing. I felt a glimmer of what it must have been like at Woodstock. At that point, my rebellious, party side came out. I started to weave through the crowd, making my way to the center, the others following me. The band was reciting the Hare Krishna mantra. The celebrators were tossing chalk into the air, and at us. By the time we reached the middle of the crowd, we were pretty colorful.

At three, we did a classic Holi tradition, the representative burning of the witch Holika. The crowd was screaming, "Burn the witch! Burn the witch!" It was like I was in another world. Then the countdown began for the releasing of the colors. As we got closer to one, the energy grew and grew. Then the countdown was finished and people began throwing chalk into the air. Chalk got in my eyes, my nose, my lungs, everywhere. The sky was replaced by a cloud of pink and green. It was crazy!

The Festival of Colors was an awesome experience. I will definitely be there next year!