"Holi knows no
bars, everybody feels it is their right to enjoy and enjoy they do. Songs,
dance, drinks, food everything goes in excess when it is time for Holi. It can
be said, "Life turns Colourful" when it is time for Holi."
~Holifestival.org
Although this
festival was basically just a glorified powder party, Holi is grounded in
history and celebration. The festival marks the end of winter and the beginning
of spring time. It's definitely a cause for celebration! As soon as we found
out about this "first time ever in Africa" event we immediately
bought tickets. As it neared the day of
the celebration there was much anticipation and excitement.
On Saturday we went
to the Holi One festival in town. It couldn't have been easier to get to and
because of it's central location there were so many people! Since they were not
allowing any food or drink at the venue, we stopped first at the Eastern Food
Bazaar. The Bazaar is basically the most wonderful food location in the
world! Vendors from the Eastern
Hemispheres work to prepare authentic foods from their respective countries.
The excitement is that the food is outstanding, it's extremely inexpensive and
you get so much! After basically entering into a food coma I got my excitement
back up because it was time to celebrate!
Although we went
with limited knowledge and didn't learn much more about the history surrounding Holi I had a great time dancing
and experiencing this traditional festival turned techno. As soon as we got
there the transformation from clean to colored occurred! It was a crazy
atmosphere where people came up to you and threw powder just because. I
noticed there wasn’t much talking going on. Even among friend groups this was
consistent. Mostly dancing and eye contact cued us in to what was going on. One
might expect that it would be awkward but having the music be the only thing in
the background was different and fun! We were all strangers but being there
brought us together. I think I only noticed it was strange when I wasn't in the
large crowd dancing and having fun. The best part of the entire event was at
the start of every hour. There was
always an exciting, dramatic countdown and then a burst of powder into the air.
The powder made a cloud above everyone's head and for just a few seconds, while
the adrenaline was rushing through, the color just fell and it felt like we
were just on top of the world.
The color fell on us for hours and for a short wile we all looked effectively the same. Somehow there was beauty in
that even though we were also incredibly dirty. When we walked through Mowbray
hours later the stares from people in the cars and on the street were hilarious but I didn't care
because even though it was a simple festival with music and powder I was
feeling elated and happy. Cape Town can do that to people.
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