holi festival

a belated happy easter! i spent easter at the same church i talked about last year, only this time i went to an earlier mass at 9:30 and found it much less overwhelming as what i had walked into last year.

following mass, i met up with meagan and we headed out to a local holi festival. holi is a hindu holiday, celebrating several different legends in the hindu religion, and also marking the start of spring. we weren't quite sure what to expect from it, but it certainly turned out be one of our better experiences!



this is what we looked at just after walking through the welcoming committee. and this was only the beginning!



see how happy she is? EVERYONE was that happy. i have never giggled so much, nor been surrounded by so many people who were just genuinely celebrating their religion and acting so completely carefree.




essentially as you walk through the crowd (who are all dancing or just enjoying themselves), everyone blesses you by marking you with the colored powder. we eventually got our own color and were able to walk around spreading the love to others. generally on the street, if someone were to come up and rub your face you'd probably be quite concerned. that was not the case here. it was all happiness.



this is what we looked like nearing the end of it. it was interesting, to say the least, to hail a cab and hope that he wouldn't mind our colorful selves in the backseat.



of course when i came home i had to share some of the colored love onto snuff, as well. he didn't enjoy it. i think he was a little startled when i walked through the door.

last easter i wrote about how amazing i found it that right next to the church, there was a chinese temple, and it signified to me exactly how culturally diverse malaysia is. this easter i had the same experience, only more first-hand than last year. it's just quite amazing to see. i'm a firm believer that one cannot blindly follow their own religion without lending themselves to experience the traditions of others. i'm all the more thankful that my opportunities here are giving me firsthand experiences. i had much to be thankful for this easter.

Categories: easter, holidays, kuala lumpur, malaysia, religion