Day 83

We have already previously learned what a successful v-logger I am.

With the trip down to the Color Festival today, I figured it would be a great opportunity to put in a second attempt. In figuring this, I failed to take several things into account, most importantly that:

1) When I am around my friends I giggle incessantly.

2) I have yet to completely master the video feature on my little camera.

3) I do not own video editing software to combine all my clips into one movie, or even trim the clips I do have.

This means that you are about to view a whole bunch of poorly shot, very short clips, some of which are hard to grasp what is happening. For this, I offer you my apologies. Here's to hoping that one day I master the medium of video.

The Holi Festival of Colors is celebrated every year at the Lotus Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah. I still don't completely understand the story behind it, but I know it involves a whole lot of chanting Hare Krishna and the burning of a witch to banish evil, which they replicate using an effigy. The festival also celebrates the coming of Spring with all its colors. The event here in Utah has been getting progressively larger for several years now. This year was huge. I've never been before, but it was pretty awesome.

The weather actually held out really well for us all day. The only thing we encountered was a light rain on the way home.

So, we started out walking. It turns out it was considerably longer than a half mile. So, the random passers-by in the parking lot that I overheard saying that little tid-bit of information are liers. I'm not bitter, though. It got me some extra exercise and saved me a $2 fee for the shuttle.

Then we wandered into the colorful masses in our white clothes. This meant that at first it was very easy to spot members of our group.

Not exactly as difficult as "Where's Waldo?".

Then the one o'clock color throwing happened.

Then things really got crazy.

Eventually we made our own little circle for a minute.

Then we decided to go up the hill, towards the temple, where I encountered a curious display.

We purchased our own colors and began using each other as canvases.

As we walked around, people would just randomly throw color on us. If you tried to stand still, somebody would try to get past you and just push you. That's what happened to me near the end of this video.

The more time went by, the more chalked up we became.

After wandering around for awhile, waiting for the 3 o'clock throwing, we decided to go to the balcony of the temple for a better view. While up there, we witnessed a smaller, unscheduled throwing.

The temple itself was really a beautiful building.

After getting our fill of that view, we returned down to the main part of Woodstock and became even more colorful.

My hair had a wicked case of polka dots.

The main announcer kept on encouraging everyone to hug strangers. I found this girl with a "Free Hugs" sign and did a half-hug. I'm not that friendly.

As it was now closing in on 3 o'clock, we crushed our way back into the mob for one last hurrah.

During this throw I was forced up against a guy with a BYU lanyard in such a way that he might not be welcomed at his school anymore. The crowd was so tight that I had to stay there for several minutes, as well. So, I slapped a couple of bright pink hand prints on the back of his still somewhat white shirt.

By now we felt as though we had taken part in all that this festival had to offer us, so we made our way back to street. But, not before we stopped to see a few things on our way.

The smoldering witch effigy. Good news, world, evil is gone!

A couple who decided this would be a memorable way to spend their wedding day.

The temple's llama farm! One of these spat grass on Nate. Nasty llama.

As we were walking back to our cars, we suddenly all realized that we were starving to death. When a Subway and Burger King were spotted, there was no stopping us.

As we continued our journey, we realized that we were in the town of Salem and had just burned a witch. This revelation inspired Chelsea to sing a tune that she swears she was not making up on the spot, no matter how it sounds.

After reaching our cars, we said goodbye and went our separate ways. On the way home, Hailey, Chelsea and I had some deep, incredible conversations, such as this one:

While on I-15, a couple of guys kept on pulling up next to us, staring, and laughing. Finally we rolled down our window and they called out, "What's goin' on?!" as we passed each other. We rolled up our windows and kept to smiling and waving, letting them try to figure it out themselves. Because, really, this amount of awesome could not be justly described in a passing moment on the freeway.

It was indeed epic.