Festival of Colours

Think of the most crazy thing you have ever done in your WHOLE life and triple it! That is how crazy the Festival of Colours was! In India, Holi announces the arrival of spring and the passing of winter. People bury their hatchets with a warm embrace and throw their worries to the wind. It is also to celebrate the triumph over the death of Demoness Holika, who tried to burn Prahlad, a worshiper of Vishnu. As Prahlada continues to worship Vishnu. His father tries to poison him, get him trampled by the elephants, and put him in a room with venomous snakes, but Prahlada survives each and every time. Holika, Prahlad's evil Aunt, has a special shawl that would prevent fire affecting the person wearing it. One day, Prahlad's father, Hiranyakashipu orders his son to sit on the lap of his Aunt Holika ontop of a pyre. Prahlad prays to Lord Vishnu to keep him safe resulting in the burning of Holika and not himself. A bonfire is lit in memory of the miraculous escape that Prahald accomplished when Demoness Holika carried him into the fire. Good triumphs over evil, yet again!!

Back to the task at hand! You are advised to wear clothes that you don’t want to keep or that you don’t mind being not quite the same as they were before the festival as the main aim is to throw coloured powder (edible maize starch which is coloured, flavoured and scented) over your friends and neighbours.

We arrived late due to the sheer volume of traffic on our way to Spanish Fork and thought we had missed the colours finale so went and purchased some colours anyway and proceeded to shower each other with the innocuous powder. We should have done this after we had been into the Temple as we were asked to blow as much dust off you as possible with a giant airblower. As a mark of respect we also had to remove our shoes. The main part of the Temple is upstairs and is a wide open space with paintings on the walls. We did not stay long and proceed back outside into the sunshine.

It transpired that we had not missed the colours finale so we purchased twice as much powder as before and made our way into the centre of the thronging crowd. This was not for the feint hearted! Towards the end of the musical section of the festival they announced that the colours would be going up shortly and with that announcement came several health warnings. Small children and asthmatics were advised to stay away from the centre of the crowd, festival goers in the main body of the crowd were advised to take several good breaths of air and to put something over their mouths before the countdown began. When the countdown was over what ensued can only be described as abject lunacy! Everyone threw their coloured powder up in the air and over the people in close proximity . At one point I wondered if I would ever see the sun shine again! I pulled my upper t-shirt over my mouth in a desperate effort to protect my lungs, luckily I had my sunglasses on but they only afforded me menial protection! After 5 minutes or so the cloud of coloured dust dissipated and people began to breath! Man alive, I have never been so glad to see the sun in all my life!