Holi Smokes!

A few weeks ago, a friend from school posted on Facebook that Singapore would be celebrating Holi at a club on Sentosa. Tickets were discounted, but "they will sell out quick" she said. So I decided to spend $18 and see what this was all about. 

I have always been intrigued by Holi--primarily because I love color--and originally I had hoped to plan one of my Spring Breaks around it, to be in India during that celebration. But it always fell on dates a few weeks ahead of our scheduled off time. So Singapore's Holi celebration would have to suffice.

I had another event scheduled for the same day, so I woke up on the morning of the festivities thinking that I would just cancel and not attend. Ironically, it takes so long to travel anywhere in this incredibly small country. This tends to make me lazy on occasion. Plus I was worried about getting to Holi before having to turn around again and leave. And I realized that I might need to shower in between the two events . . . (Might need to shower was an understatement.) 

Thankfully, my friend texted me several times and coerced me into attending. And, man-o-live: it was totally amazing and crazy. I loved it! 

We arrived to find this giant line snaking around outside of the club. But because we had purchased our tickets early, we jumped the line and got right in. Some drummers were just inside, playing music for the people waiting in line. They were so much fun to watch, each of them having a great time. With my ticket, I received a bag of organic colored powder and a house pour (drink of my choice from the bar). Due to my time constraints, I ordered my drink when I walked in the door. And almost within seconds, I looked like the following image. 

People--anyone--began smearing color all over everyone and everything. It didn't matter if they knew you or not. All over clothes, faces, legs, everywhere. 

Holi is the Hindu celebration of color and love, welcoming in Spring. So with the color and love comes a little water. Part of the reason I couldn't take as many pictures as I wanted was because water was coming at me from every direction. Random people would dump giant buckets of water on our heads. People were spraying water from a hose on the second floor. One guy followed me around spraying me with a water gun for at least 20 minutes. It was nuts! And heaven! But mostly nuts! I loved it!

And it got super crowded really quickly . . . When we arrived, there were a handful of people inside. But it got packed. And the more packed it got, the louder the music got. At one point I was even dancing to Gangnam Style, and I can't stand that song. But there was something really great about being surrounded by all of these people covered in color, writhing to a dance beat. I don't know, it just worked.  

It was like being at Bonnaroo or Lollapalooza, but there were no bands involved (and it was way smaller and cheaper). That's what it reminded me of. It was great. And freeing. And so full of life!

Of course I had to leave at 12:30 to be able to make it to my next event at 3pm, showered and somewhat clean. You can see below the progression of color. Some guy was walking around with a huge bag of red powder. I got excited by the color and let him smear it all over my face. The red powder was different then the other powders. So it didn't quite wash off the same. 

I scrubbed up for a bit before leaving the festivities, but still ended up with pretty much a bright pink face for several hours. It's always fun to shake things up a bit in Singapore: riding the train home from Sentosa while dripping wet and completely covered in color was hilarious. If I had a dime for every dirty look I got, I would be a millionaire (and I'd actually be able to afford to live here). 

After my second event of the day, I came home around 9pm and sat around my house with cold cream all over my face. I realize this makes me sound like a 1950's housewife, but it worked (and my face feels amazing)! I was able to get all of the color off of my mug. Sadly, I kind of miss it. Next year, folks. And I'm gonna do it up big. Huge. No secondary events, I'm staying as long as I like and dancing forever!