The Festival of CoLoRs!

I was working last Saturday night at the Olive Garden when one of my tables was seated with individuals covered head to toe in different shades of brightly colored chalk.  While normally I would have introduced myself with something totally mundane like,  "Welcome to the Olive Garden, my name is Abbey, BLAH BLAH BLAH" I instead played a quick game of twenty questions with the whole table trying to get to the bottom of who-what-where-when-and-why they came in looking like this.  Management would have probably frowned on this behavior, but I was trying to "build a guest connection" a.k.a. find out more information for myself. 

They told me they had just been to the Festival of Colors at the Hindu temple in Spanish Fork.  That basically it was a celebration welcoming spring where everyone gathers together for a big party where everyone throws colored chalk at each other.  I liked it.  A lot.  I was really sad that I had missed it, honestly.  But no!  They told me they had spread it out to a two day event this year, and I could still go on Sunday from noon to 4:00.  Victory!  Now came the biggest challenge - talking Matt (a person who hates all things dirty) into going with me and getting blasted in the face by strangers with handfuls of chalk.  I knew I had a daunting task ahead of me. 

After a little use of my manipulation skills (which I am not entirely proud of) he agreed to go.  Then I showed him some pictures of the previous year and he said  "Aw, hell no."  But alas, he had already said yes, and I wasn't about to let him back out now.  We dropped TC off at my parents and headed down to Spanish.  I can call it "Spanish" because I have family who lives there so I am entitled to.  I can't, however, say I was really prepared for what we saw when we walked to the temple.  

There were 14,000 people covered in bright colored chalk having the time of their lives amongst the lamas and peacocks at a temple on a hill that in no way looks like it belongs anywhere near Spanish.  Possibly not even on the same continent as Spanish.  These Hari Krishnas know how to party - there was a band, food, and a little recreational drug use.  We made our way through the crowd as people threw handfuls of chalk at us.  At first I didn't really know how to react.  Should I be upset that we being targeted?  Should I ignore that it was happening?  Should I say thank you?  It was a little awkward until we bought some chalk for ourselves and threw it back at them.  The awkwardness fleeted and then we really got into it - Matt and I had the time of our lives standing near the entrance and picking out the new clean people as our next victims, trying to make them feel awkward.  I know it sounds a little weird when I say it like that... Guess you had to be there. 

In my experience, events like this tends to bring out the weirdies... which is half of the reason I like to go to them.  This guy sitting in his one-piece long johns and bare feet in the mud by himself was cracking me up.  He sat there the whole time.  I had to take a picture.  Not to mention the guy in front of him dressed in a wrestling singlet.  Um... where do they come from? 

A few hours after we got there they had a ceremony where they "burned the witch" (that I still don't entirely understand) and had a countdown to the throwing of the colors where everyone tosses their chalk into the air and makes a gigantic color-filled cloud.  Definitely the highlight of the event. 

Despite his hesitation, Matt had a great time.  We laughed all day and hours after.  See?  Sometimes trying something you would normally never do can turn out to be a great thing...  We will definitely be back!  I asked him what his friends in Georgia would think if they could see him like this and he just shook his head, laughed, and said, "I don't even know."  Cheers to new experiences!