Monday, March 24, 2014

Holi Cow, That Was Fun!

Last weekend we drove to Sydney to go to the Holi Festival.  Holi is a Hindu festival that has a basic concept of good triumphing over evil and the welcoming of spring.  You can read more about it here. So why would our Christian family decide to go to a Hindu festival?  It was actually at the request of our younger son.  This has been an ongoing request over the past 6 months, so I'll give a bit of an explanation.

Last year, one of the overarching topics for a term at school was Celebrations.  During that time, the class learned about many celebrations around the world.  Holi was one that stuck with Wills for one simple reason - the throwing of colours.  A video had been shown to his class of the actual event in Sydney.  Will decided he really wanted to go - I suspect it's because he knew it was one of the rare times he could chuck something at his brother and get away with it!

Now, why throwing colours?  It took me awhile to figure that part out.  I finally found where the colours came in, besides just being fun and representing the blossoming of flowers in spring - which seemed a bit obvious.  Krishna, who is always portrayed as blue, became tired of being the only god that was a different colour, especially after he fell in love with a fair-skinned goddess.  So, he playfully painted her face with colour.  Subsequently, they fell in love, so now it's also considered a playful thing to do with your loved ones!  Also, this is what those 5k colour runs are based.



So Will came home and, with permission, did some research on the computer to find out when Holi would be happening in Sydney for 2014.  He discovered the dates and begged us to go to it.  We responded with a "We'll see," not intending to go to the city for just that.

Luck for Wills, it corresponded to the same weekend Major League Baseball was playing at the Sydney Cricket Ground.  We had friends that were coming down from Brisbane to watch - Hi, Rita! - and thought it would be nice to catch up with them.  The stars aligned and we headed down for an overnight trip!


Funny to see baseballs floating in Darling Harbour!


I'll finish up with some pictures of our trip.  There aren't any of us throwing the colours, as there was no way I was taking my camera into that mess!  We had a great time.  It's really fun to learn about other cultures, and we find it's also a great tool to explain how and why our beliefs are different to the boys!

Ready to throw.  And, yes, I know the irony of wearing a Christian
shirt to a Hindu festival.  IUMC representing in Sydney!

The aftermath.  And, yew, it did wash out of all our clothes!

This stupid shirt is never going away - it's as white as the driven snow again!


In line for curry!

Lounging in the park after lunch