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Sunday, March 28, 2010

culture and organized sports


Yesterday I attended the Holi Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork. Why there is a Hindu temple in Spanish Fork, Utah, I will never know, but the festival was a lot of fun. The Festival of Colors is an Indian tradition that celebrates the legend of Prahlad and Hiranyakshyap. Hiranyakshyap was evil and wanted everyone to worship him, but to his horror his own son Prahlad began to worship Lord Vishnu. Hiranyakshyap asked his sister Holika to enter a blazing fire with Prahlad in her lap, because Holika was able to enter fires without getting burned. Prahlad was saved for his devotion, while Holika paid the price. Fires are burned the night before Holi. The colors refers to the legend of Radha and Krishna (Hindu deity "it" couple). Krishna thought it was fun to apply color to Radha and the other gopis (Radha's maidservants). This prank is represented by the throwing of chalk at the festival.

Now that I have enlightened myself and my loyal readers (ha!) here is a picture of what the majority of the festival was. My group arrived late (bigger ha) so we missed the main festivities, but I still managed to get covered in chalk and participate in the Hare Krishna chant. (Which, if you were curious, is a mantra repeated during the festival which is supposed to be the pure love of God (Krishna) and also appears in George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord") The chant part consisted of middle-aged men repeating the mantra onstage with guitars while everyone else jumped around. The big trend was crowdsurfing, which to my horror, I participated in for a brief minute. It was actually a lot of fun and the temple was beautiful. It reminded me of Candyland.
Pre-festival, I played in a soccer tournament with my ward. Please hold your laughter. My body is now punishing me for thinking I could participate in organized sports because every muscle, limb and joint aches. Seriously, I wince when I walk. No fun.
24 days until home!! The year is finally winding down to an end and I can't wait. Spanish Fork vaguely reminded me of Lancaster, especially the smell. I watched High School Musical 3 and the Hannah Montana Movie this weekend- both reminded me of the end of senior year and spring. I liked it, but it made me a little bit sad.

Finally, does anyone know where this leather jacket is from?? I have been on the neverending quest to find the perfect leather jacket, and I think I've found it, but the designer is nowhere to be found, and since I'm not chummy with Dakota, I don't think I'll ever know. But if anyone does have a clue where it's from, share!

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