On Thursday, just to catch you up, I went to see The Hunger Games. It was fantastic!! I think they chose their actors well and changed the story to fit in movie-form well. Besides some wishes that the camera would be somewhat less shaky at parts, I think it was great. If you haven't seen the movie, you should see it! And if you haven't read the book, you should read it! I still need to finish Mockingjay....
Friday was the last day of the quarter (thank goodness)! I'm glad to have it over with. It was not my best quarter, by far, but I'm glad that I've made it through as well as I believe I have. This year has been really difficult for me, and the schoolwork is torture sometimes, but I've done well enough!
Then, on Saturday I went to Holi, the Festival of Colors! I went with my girl scout leader Doreen and fellow girl scout, Bianca, as well as my sister and Bianca's friend Annie. It was so much fun! We went down to Spanish Fork, found some parking, and walked probably about a mile to get to the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple. On the way there, I read over some "carrots (dos) and sticks (don'ts)", and I thought they were interesting. I was surprised to see that body surfing was allowed (though I did not participate!), and then the first carrot was to ask if we could "lovingly decorate your face and color your hair".
We were passed by some people covered with powder already, and some of them patted or tossed powder onto us. It was funnily nice. And then, when we got there and got our scented chalk (one color I got smelled really good, a sort of spicy scent! The entire festival smelled like a little Indian restaurant my family went to a couple of weeks ago, which was a good thing!), we started tossing and patting colors onto each other and everyone else at the festival, too. For the most part, it was a lot of fun to do! Whenever you threw it so it got on someone's arm, they would turn and smile at you as they walked past. But there were also some people (like someone who attacked me with some green) that would throw their chalk in your face... which was completely unpleasant when unexpected.
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| My sister and I after we were attacked with some color |
A little bit, I was surprised at how many people had no idea what the festival was about and just showed up because it would be fun. I think most people there forgot that it was a religious festival, not just a "let's throw colors!" free-for-all. Of our group, I was the only one that knew that this was to celebrate the coming of spring, but I still felt a little ashamed that I didn't know who "Krishna" was in all of the songs that they sang ("Baby Krishna, naughty naughty Krishna" suddenly made sense when I looked up the legend of Krishna and Holi). But I still treated it as the friendly, religious festival it was, I think.
There was one point where a new musician took the stage (I believe her name was Melissa, perhaps?) and would talk to us, in a sort of hypnotizing way (you know, when people are telling you things and you just listen and think about them?), and I got really into it. She was saying how we are all so beautiful. How we all have so much potential, and we were all here because we are beautiful people. It really brought home how beautiful this festival is spiritually, in addition to visually. I think the spirit of how the festival is supposed to be taken could be summed up in that first carrot: "May I lovingly decorate your face and color your hair?" That was the best part of it. When most people threw color on you, it was in a kind way. Whenever I threw color at people, I did try to do it lovingly, and liked to see them smile as they walked by.
I was a little disappointed, then, when we were leaving. We had just finished the 3:00 throwing of the colors (which was pretty cool, though terrifying when all of the colors mix and you have a ten second period where air is pretty scarce) and were walking back to the car. We threw colors at the people who were dressed in clean white and headed towards the festival. Most of them looked surprised, but some of them smiled at us. There were plenty of people ahead of us who must have been throwing it into people's faces, judging by how people were wiping yellow from their eyes and complaining to their friends. When we got back, Doreen told us that one girl got color thrown on her shoulder and literally threatened to beat up the person who had done it. When my brother came back later from the festival, he told us that it ended up feeling like he was supposed to be at some frat party -- emphasizing my belief that most people were being ignorant and had no idea what the festival was about, except for the fact that there was color there and you threw it at people.
I'm Unitarian Universalist, as a few people seem to know, but... does that matter? I did go to this festival because it would be fun, yes. But I also had to respect it for what it was -- a religious festival, of someone else's religion. Religion is such an important part of most people's lives that it should be respected, despite what your own beliefs may be. So, next year when I hear people talking about Holi again, I'll make sure to challenge them to understand what it is... I'm sure I would have enjoyed it even more if I had known all of the legends behind it before hand.
French the llama, religious tolerance is awesome!
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| We decided at one point that we would throw color on our own faces -- close your eyes, close your mouth, and breathe out! |
Peace, love, and happiness to you all! Remember the golden rule -- treat others how you want to be treated -- and don't forget to be awesome!
(Seriously, write it on your hand: DFTBA!) I love you guys!
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