Last Saturday, I was a part of the largest Hindu Holi Festival in North America - a worldwide rite celebrating multiple important Hindu religious themes. The first is the beginning of spring, the second is the religious devotion of one Prince Prahlad to Hare Krishna, and the third is the birthday of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
During the event, an effigy of a Satan-like figure is burned, performances go on, and a count-down leads to the "throwing of colors," where the entire crowd throws powdered, lavender-scented chalk at each other. The painted faces everyone wears indicate the arrival of spring.
Here are some pictures of my own experience at the Hare Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah:
This was a shot of the crowd during the throwing of colors at the festival.
An excited friend...
A group shot at the festival.
Now, what I would really like to talk about today has to do with the dangers of crowd surfing. During the throwing of colors, the crowd was so thick that my friends and I could hardly breathe. Madeleine and Charity, two of my friends at the event, were with me at the time, and they decided to take the opportunity to crowd surf. Unfortunately, they didn't think before they plunged themselves into the crowd. Here is what I would do differently given the situation they placed me in. Hopefully all of you crowd-surfing wannabes can take the same precautions the next time you decide to leap into a crowd of strangers:
1) Take your cellphone with you so the person holding your stuff doesn't lose you for the next hour.
2) Know who's picking you up.
3) Be prepared for an abrupt landing.
With these tips, you'll be a crowd-surfing pro. I still wouldn't recommend it, though.