It's Holi time in Utah Valley: that singular moment for BYU students to behave like, well, other college students. Perhaps more remarkable than our behavior while participating in the Hindu Festival of Colors is the fact that we behave like this while perfectly sober!
Why in the world hasn’t western culture developed something as beautifully celebratory as Hinduism has? The wild anxiety of the bonfire crackling, an effigy burning, crowds pressing, drums beating, dancers whirling...it all ended in hurling handfuls of colored powder at each other and struggling to see or breath under the cloud of dust. The entire world became a mass of bodies and wafting waves of color. My only complaint is that for its supposed authenticity, the festival has become quite the commercial event. I'm blaming/congratulating facebook for it's popularity this year.
Experiences like this stay with you, in more ways than one. For example, more powder ended up my nose than in my clothes (that are now orangey-pink) or my hair because afterwards, whenever I went out in the cold, instead of the sniffles I would apparently contract an orange and purple bloody nose. Ah...culture.
