Festival of Colors is Where My Inner Grandma Comes Out

So for those of you who do not have Facebook friends that live in Provo and have not seen the 10 million Facebook pics about this lovely event, you may not know that this past weekend was the Holi celebration at the Hara Krishna temple in Spanish Fork. Why is there a Hara Krishna temple in Mormonville, you might ask? I am not sure...but it does throw a huge event once a year in which tons of people flock to their temple and pay $2 for a bag of colored cornstarch substance to throw on other people. It has religious significance to them, but I think most of us there just wanted to have the crazy experience.

I had been once before, two years ago. Back then, I swear it was all BYU kids, and the sunshine and live music made the festival have a really cool vibe. It was popular, but not crazy crowded. Now, however, it has kind of grown to epic proportions. They expanded it to two days and like 6 "throwings" (times where they count down and you toss the powder). The field where the throwings were was so crowded you could barely move, and forget even trying to tour the temple itself, because it was insanely packed (and I think that it half the fun of going there). Plus, they didn't burn no effigy of the witch like they used to, and I know that Dave and I wanted to see a stinkin effigy. It was like over-run with junior high kids and people with babies, and a lot of stoner old people too. It had snowed the day before so the ground was a muddy, puddle-filled war zone. People were like falling and sliding in the mud...gross.

This is when Grandma Claire started to come out:

1. I started thinking about all of the laundry I was going to have to do and the shower I was going to have to scrub after getting washed off.

2. Muddy shoes stress me out.

3. I was really worried about the irresponsible parents who decided that it was a good idea to bring little kids. Why would you want your little toddler to breath in like 1,000 pounds of sick colored dust?!?!?! I wanted to offer to go take them back to the car with me and let them breath fresh air.

4. There was very little security (like, two guys at the front) and I saw no first aid station. This presented a problem when a lady next to us started having a seizure and they couldn't get the ambulance through. Then, I started to panic a little in my head.

When did I turn into such a part pooper? Seriously. However, in the end it was really fun, and I am glad we went! We had good company (Garrett and Racheal, and Evan and Lizzy) and once I put aside my uptight issues and got all dirty and enjoyed the rendition of "taking care of business" that the Hara Krishna leader played on his electric guitar, it was all good!

mayhem


before things even got toooo crazy...

And, I made a really good connection to Lehi's dream and the chaos being like the mists of darkness. Dave tried to make me go bear my testimony about it today, but I refused. Everyone in our ward knew I went anyway because I still have pink hair.

Speaking of church, we had our first go as Nursery teachers today! It was pretty calm seeing as we only have three little kids in there, and they are so super cute. We did learn that spending loads of time preparing the lesson was kind of fruitless though...although we did learn a great rendition of "Once There Was a Snowman" that has the words changed to "Once I Was a Baby". Two of the three kids loved it. They also loved the pictures that we colored about making healthy choices. It was fun and I learned that Dave is really good at fitting his body on a plastic slide made for toddlers. I need to invest in some more dresses that can be sat in cross-legged on the floor, though.