In India, Holi announces the arrival of spring and the passing of winter. The Hare Krishna, a faith that originated in India, celebrate Holi every spring with a festival open to all. The admission ticket sales fund a lot the maintenance and construction of their building and their staff. It is also an opportunity for the community to learn about the Hare Krishna's beliefs, culture and tradition.
There are several locations where the event is held. I wanted to participate in their annual run, but we were in the Grand Canyon at that time. So our family, plus Sally and Claire joined us in Milcreek for the festival.
We arrived prepared, with our handkerchiefs and clean clothes, and left full of color and great memories.The festival was set up with a stage on a large grassy area. Several different performers were lined up for an hour each. There were also booths of people selling products - mostly Indian apparel, henna tattoos, etc. On the opposite side of the stage were bounce houses and a playground for the kids. There were also yoga classes and a tour of their greenhouses where they grow the produce they eat.
The youngest kids were most interested in the play equipment, whereas Emilia and Claire had more fun by the stage. Carson couldn't care for either. He just stood as still as a rod while everyone else was dancing and jumping all around him.
Each of the kids got several packets of chalk dust to throw in the air (and at each other). The chalk smelled like incense. Every 30 minutes or so, they would have a coordinated 'chalk throw' by the stage. Those got really dusty. People literally could not see anything in the haze for a few seconds until it cleared.
Eventually Carson warmed up to the event, and even though he never danced, he wanted to be as colorful as possible so he walked around the crowd with me trying to catch color throwers.Todd remained the most intact of all of us. I think it was by choice that he stayed by the playground with Andrew so he wouldn't get color allover.
It was a lot of fun to experience, perhaps next year I'll consider doing the run.
