Lanny-yap: Spanish Fork, Utah | Largest Holi Celebration In The Western Hemisphere

02 April 2011

Spanish Fork, Utah | Largest Holi Celebration In The Western Hemisphere

Every year the Hare Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah puts on the biggest Holi celebration in the Western Hemisphere. In 2011 the Spanish Fork Police department estimated that over 40,000 people attended in the first day alone of the two-day festival. Organizers carefully rationed their stash of approximately 120,000 bags of colored powder. Attendees come from all over the country (and some from abroad), but the majority of attendees are students from Brigham Young, Utah Valley, and Utah universities.

Holi celebrates the triumph of good over evil and ushers in the spring season. The festival commemorates a Hindu myth about a witch, Holika, who burned children in a fire. One child repeated the Hare Krishna mantra as he was carried into the flames and the witch was burned instead. At the Spanish Fork festival, rock and roll, R&B, and other modern interpretations of the mantra are played by musicians throughout the day and chanted in a call and response game between performers and attendees. The main event of each festival is the coordinated throwing of colored powder, when the sky above the crowd is filled with rainbow puffs of dye.

This video is a tribute to the Utah version of Holi, which the director, Evan Carpenter, has attended faithfully for the last six years. This video was produced by Plaid Social Labs, a video and social media marketing company based in Provo, Utah. [www.plaidsocial.com] The performers featured in the video are Namrock and C.C. White's Soul Kirtan.

Via Dangerous Minds

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02 April 2011

Spanish Fork, Utah | Largest Holi Celebration In The Western Hemisphere

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