Sunday morning was awash in colors not only at the St. Patrick’s Day parade, where youth made smart work of the silly string in Throggs Neck. Further South, the Vishnu Mandir community celebrated the second day of Holi, an annual festival, that is a blast…a blast of beautiful colors.
The spring festival at the approach of the vernal equinox is ancient Hindu religious festival, also known as festival of colors,and sometimes festival of love.[3][4] It is primarily observed in India, Nepal, and other regions of the world with significant Hindi populations and has, in recent times, spread in parts of Europe and North America (including our neck of the woods!) as a spring celebration of love, frolic and colors.[6][7][8]
Holi celebrations start with a Holika bonfire on the night before Holi where people gather, sing and dance. We visited the celebration the next morning, a free for all carnival of colors,[5] where everyone plays, chases and colors each other with dry powder and colored water. Anyone and everyone is fair game, friend or stranger, rich or poor, man or woman, children and elders (including The Chronicle’s Annie Boller– you’ll see in the video). The frolic and fight with colours occurs in the open streets, open parks, outside temples and buildings. Groups carry drums and musical instruments, go from place to place, sing and dance. People move and visit family, friends and foes, laugh and chit-chat, followed by a feast of Holi delicacies, food and drinks. (more information from wikipedia here)
Special thanks to the Kemraj family!
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