Hello from India and Happy Spring! This week we celebrated the festival of Holi. Holi is the India’s festival of colors and is celebrated every year to mark the first day of spring! I have dreamed of celebrating this beautiful festival in India long before I knew I would be living here. The Color Run which we have in the States is inspired by this festival.

Becuase Holi is such a big deal in India we celebrated on Wednesday (yesterday) on my office rooftop with lots of colors, water balloons, and water guns filled with bright colors! We ended the day with Chinese takeout. Today, Thursday, is true Holi although it is celebrated basically the entire week the festivals and colors are the most crazy today. I celebrated again today with some of my roommates and neighbors in the society I live in. I had to hurry home though because I am catching a flight to south India for the rest of the weekend.

Holi can be celebrated in any way you want! Some people wear crazy clown hair, masks, colorful tassels, and but everyone is for sure painted in bright colors! There are also music and art festivals that accompany this time. They are all over the city and are pretty cheap to attend. The crowds are filled with color and you can’t see much except lots of colors!

The colors are the the gift of Holi that keeps on giving becuase they colors don’t wash off in the shower completely. As I type this my arms are stained green and purple and there is some yellow still in my hair that won’t come out. It was a great celebration and a really unique way to welcome in spring!

Until next time,

Rae