Holi Colors New York
Some things never change. Lord Krishna played holi with Radha and her sakhis in the lush groves of Brindaban in timeless time – and now we are still playing it in the 21st century, not only in India but across the diaspora – even on a on board a ship anchored off New York city, no less!
Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, is here heralding spring, joy and togetherness. In India, the streets are turned multicolored with every hue imaginable. At private parties there are pichkari-fights as revelers get splashed with color, dunked in pools full of colored water, and splurge on sweets and gets intoxicated on thandai, often laced with bhang. We share a wonderful video of the late great showman Raj Kapoor whose Holi parties were legendary. Enjoy!
For Indian-Americans living in New York, the festival may be just a regular routine day but increasingly friends and family are getting together to bring some color into daily lives. Many temples and community organizations mark the day with celebrations. Increasingly US born Indian-Americans are getting into the act and bringing their own east-west take on Holi. Here are two organizations which have been literally painting the town red, pink, green and blue! Both events are in mid-March, so there’s still time to enjoy the festivities.
Rang Barse, Holi on the Hudson
Holi will be celebrated in New York on a cruise ship on March 17, sailing on the Hudson River. This is hosted by IN Group, a New York-based event management company, and there’s food, drink, dance and a lot of color and revelry. Here is a photo gallery of last year’s event and details on this year’s event. www.ingroupevents.com
Holi Hai in New York!
Holi is outdoors and free (as it’s meant to be) for the whole family during NYC Bhangra’s Annual Event on March 25 at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza with lots of Holi colors, sweets, music, dance, henna and food. The video of last year’s Holi event says it all.
Video Holi event in 2011:
Holi Hai in New Jersey Too!
New Jersey, with its huge Indian-American populations, has several private and public events. Rimli Roy and Surati have a full day of dance, music and color on March 10 in Jersey City. There are music, dance and yoga workshops, children’s artwork highlighting Holi and workshops for children to experiment with rungoli. There’s lunch, dancing and a DJ, and of course lots of Holi colors. More details here
