The Festival of the Colors is probably the strangest thing I have ever participated in. It is a Hari Krishna celebration where an effigy of an evil demon woman is burned and then paint colors—scented with jasmine--are thrown in the air. I’m not going to lie—it felt very weird to me, and very pagan. I didn’t participate in the chanting.The interesting thing about the Hari Krishna population in Utah is a lot of them are white converts. How odd to think about these people who probably used to be Mormon—or at least Christian—converting to an outlying sect of Hinduism. It seems so anti-US-religious culture. And then it hit me—it is probably as weird to me to see white-Spanish Fork-Utahn-Hari Krishnas as it is weird for say a Japanese person to see a Buddhist turned Mormon. It is probably as anti-cultural tradition to see someone in a Buddhist or a Muslim country turn Christian as it is for me to see someone go the opposite direction, so—strange experience—good epiphany. I will have to say it made me even that much more grateful today as I was watching conference to know I belong to the true church—one where we don’t burn effigies of demons, but positively celebrate the birth and atonement of Jesus Christ.
3 comments:
How interesting! We've been to the Llama fest (which was hillarious - watching kids try to get llamas to go through an obstacle course) and we toured the temple and heard a little bit of their beliefs, but I'd never even heard of that ritual. Thanks for sharing. I'm so up for getting together SOON!!!! Oh, and lets not do any strange chanting & I wouldn't torture you w/ my painting ablities either!
I read about that in the paper. Pretty interesting...but it sure looks like fun! I love a good mess!
Wow.. where have I been? I've never been to an event there. It's a beautiful building that's for sure.. kind of in the middle of nowhere. It sounds like it was an interesting and good experience. I think it's always good to visit others beliefs to help us put our own in perspective.
Fun pics!!
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