Holi-Festival of Colors

Julianne, Rebekah, three of Rebekah's friends and I all attended the Holi-Festival of Colors at the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple today.

To give you an idea of what this festival is, here is a blurb from the organizers website:
Holi is the Festival of Colors, a traditional Indian holiday celebrated in our own innovative fashion.  By far our biggest festival of the year, during Holi 2011 50,000 revelers flooded the temple and grounds for 2 days day of brightly colored powder, mantra, music and a bit of "holi" mayhem.

Traditionally everyone wears white.  Bags of colored powder are available for sale.  And then every two hours they have a "throwing" where everyone tosses handfuls of color up in the air and basically goes all color war mayhem.  Music plays and everyone dances (ie: jumps up and down with their hands in the air).  Rebekah and her friends even "crowd surfed"  (ie: let themselves be passed above the crowd on outstretched hands).  Funny thing...even though the "throwing" is the main event, people continue to toss color around during downtimes as well.  Because apparently that's what you do...get a handful of color and throw it at whoever and whenever strikes your fancy.  So I was a complete rainbow long before I ever actually bought any bags of color for myself.  The whole thing was downright fascinating!  And really a lot of unique fun.  It took some pretty intense scrubbing to get all the color out of my hair and I still have yet to know if my white shirt will ever be truly white again....but it was worth it!

This picture is by EKPritchett Photography.  Isn't it amazing??!  We stood in the middle of the crowd during the "throwing."  If I ever go again, I'm already planning to watch from the outskirts and experience it that way.