FESTIVAL OF COLORS 2009
Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork
Yesterday we traveled down to Spanish Fork to the Hare Krishna Temple to attend Holi.
(Hindu Festival of Colors)
This festival of colors represents the passing of winter into spring.
Hare Krishnas believe we are not our bodies, but eternal spiritual souls, parcels of God.
In order to keep focused on their spiritual self, they chant this Mantra:
We chanted and danced our little HEARTS OUT!!
Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork
Yesterday we traveled down to Spanish Fork to the Hare Krishna Temple to attend Holi.
(Hindu Festival of Colors)
This festival of colors represents the passing of winter into spring.
Hare Krishnas believe we are not our bodies, but eternal spiritual souls, parcels of God.
In order to keep focused on their spiritual self, they chant this Mantra:
The Mantra Rock Band led the crowd in the chant.Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
(each word of the mantra has meaning and is used as a method of self-realization)
We chanted and danced our little HEARTS OUT!!
There is a bonfire in the middle of the crowd that they light and then the throwing of the colors follows the lighting of fire as a fun way to wipe out differences between people of different castes. When everyone is covered with colored powder, race, ethnicity and other superficial differences between people evaporate and everyone is free to celebrate and love one another.
Here are our plastered selves!! (thank heavens for glasses)
The Temple is beautiful and Matt and I wanted to go in (which it totally allowed) but we didn't want to get it all chalky so we will be taking another trip down on another day when we are chalk-free to see the inside. They teach free yoga and meditation lessons there and feed you vegetarian meals while giving you a tour and teaching you more about their beliefs.
We felt like VIP's pulling up to the festival because Kelsey's friend Kelli lives right across the street from it so we got to park at her house while all the other 15,000 festival goers had to hike from down the hill where they parked their cars. The whole town was bogged down with all the people that came!
Another highlight of the trip was riding on Kelli's grandma's chair stair.
(any George from Seinfield fans? We know, you're jealous!)
On the back side of the temple checking out the animals and grounds.
What a beautiful day!
As we were leaving a bunch of Kids were chanting, "High on Life, High on Life"
I guess that's what a beautiful day and colorful chalk from India does to ya cause we were pretty high on life too.
We are going to make it a tradition to go to it every year as long as we are in Utah!
Let us know if you wanna come next year!
Warning:
You may or may not have hot pink ear wax and bright purple boogers for days after the festival!!
It is 100% worth it though...
...really, it is!
6 comments:
That looks like so much fun and such an awesome thing to be a part of. It sounds lie there is a lot of really cool meanings behind it as well, I am sure we could all learn something from their accepting attitude.
I love the pictures.
My boss is Indian (first generation here in the states) and I love to hear about Hindu traditions/beliefs. He's such a neat and very spiritual man. I want to ask him about this tradition of the chalk, he didn't tell me about this. It looks like so much fun:)
Oh I have always wanted to go to this! I think it looks so awesome! I'm glad you have fun, and you look beautifully colored!!
Bridger went too and said it was one of the funnest things he's ever done! Let's all go next year! Itlooks like a blast! So are you and Matt gonna come visit us in DC this summer?? And yes, Sara is prego too! We're so excited!!
So much fun!! I love your pics. We always wanted to go to that while we were in UT. You know when you should go back to get to see some awesome Hare Krishna "things"? --Go for the Hare Krishna Birthday celebration. (I can't remember exactly when that is, though.) Juan and I went a couple years ago and it was awesome!! You take off your shoes at the door and walk into the temple, while there are cool ritualistic performances and yummy food in the lower floors. Awesome experience.
that looks like so much fun! I have never even heard of this before! Looks great.
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