Holi + Festival of Colors

Today’s tidbit: “Embracing diversity is one adventure after another, opening new paths of discovery that connect an understanding to caring, listening, and sharing with others who are different than ourselves.” — April Holland

The older I get, the more important I think it is to travel and embrace different cultures. We may not understand everything, but I think people should be open-minded and take in as much as they can! One of my biggest pet peeves is stereotypes and narrow-mindedness. I don’t see how anyone can generalize and stereotype a whole location or group of people, especially without knowing anything about it.

Sneak peek images:

I was in the perfect spot to catch this surprise of color getting dumped.

Be sure to click below to read more and check out more pictures. Enjoy!

A little background… My mom’s family is from Germany and Yugoslavia while my dad is from India. Growing up we dabbled in parts of each culture and their beliefs, but we never really understood the traditions and culture. I have been to India and Germany, but I was in elementary school so I really don’t remember too much. I am making it a priority to finally go to India next year hopefully!

Now that my parent’s divorce is final, I wish for nothing but happiness for everyone moving forward. My dad and I are still in Northern Virginia so we see each other often (although he is looking for a new place in Maryland by his work once we sell our childhood home in the next few months). Everyone will be doing things differently and I know he plans to have a lot more social gatherings and bring more Indian customs back into his life. While I don’t understand much of it right now, I want to… and the only way to do that is try something new, right?

So onto the event that is the topic of this blog post! This year, March 27^th was the Holi Festival in India, which is also known as the Festival of Colors. One of my dad’s friends in Maryland held an event at Bretton Wood Country Club to honor this celebration that weekend, on March 30^th. Due to rainy weather that weekend it was rescheduled to this past weekend, April 6^th—which ended up being a perfect sunny day in the 70s. I know my dad was looking forward to sharing this experience with me and my boyfriend, John, but what made it even more special was that his brother from India was visiting and was able to join us.

The festival marks the end of winter and the abundance of the upcoming spring harvest season. The day is spent smearing colored powder all over each other, having parties and dancing. Read more. My dad also described the colored powder as bringing people closer together in a quicker way, allowing you to be open and meet new people easily. You would see someone who didn’t have much color and you’d go over to them, smear some of the color you had, introduce yourself and start chatting. It was a neat idea, and it really seemed to work. I talked with a lot more people than I would have otherwise.

Although it took a little while getting used to, I loved seeing how happy it made people and how much fun everyone, of all ages, was having. Not only was it catered with a variety of delicious Indian food and an open bar, there was also live music, a DJ and dancing. No one had a care in the world or cared what people thought. Everyone was meeting new people and just enjoying the celebration and the day, and that’s how it should be. I was thrilled John embraced the event as well, trying new things and meeting new people.

And talk about having color everywhere! Everyone and everything was covered in the colored powder and bubbles from the bubble machine. The food was vibrant and bright as well. It was a very neat experience and I am looking forward to trying and attending more new events in the future.

Below are some of the pictures I took while I was there. It was a little challenging given the color all over me. I really enjoyed the color and had a lot of fun, but I had to be careful not to get it on my camera! Enjoy!