Date: Saturday, 26 March 2011, and Sunday, 27 March 2011

Time: 10am - 8pm on Saturday, and noon - 4pm on Sunday

Location: Spanish Fork Krishna Temple

What better way to welcome in the new Spring by throwing bags of colorful chalk into the air? The Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork will be celebrating Holi, the Festival of Colors, this coming weekend.

An Indian holiday, the Holi festival encourages the return of Sping. There are many legends surrounding the Holi festival. One of the more commonly known is that the name Holi is taken from the Indian Demoness, Holika, who was the sister of Hiranya Kashipu, a Demon King. After Hiranya Kashipu learns of his son's devotion to Lord Vishnu, he becomes enraged and plots with his sister to kill his son. Since Holika is immune to fire, she carries the child, Prahlad, into a fire to burn. However there is a divine intervention that kills Holika instead and saves Prahlad. From this legend, the burning of the evil Holika, is celebrated via the Holi festival. 

The Holi festival at the Spanish Fork Krishna Temple has a huge following, especially amongst college aged attendees. Everyone is welcomed and encouraged to attend. But be warned: make sure that you wear clothes that you don't mind getting dirty or stained. There will be small bags of colored chalk for sale. At various intervals throughout the day, the bags of colors will be thrown up in to the air to be carried by the wind. The majority of these colors (red, green, yellow, blue, black and silver) will end up on the attendees.

There will also be a lot of singing and chanting with various musical entertainment throughout both days. At the end of the day there will also be a bonfire and the burning of an effigy.

The throwing of colors will be held every two hours starting at 11am on Saturday and 1pm on Sunday. Colors can be purchased online now until Friday for $2 per bag. Otherwise they will be sold at the Temple on both Saturday and Sunday. In order to avoid the lines, it is best if you purchase them online for pickup at the Temple. 

This year Festival organizers and the Spanish Fork police are asking that attendees park in either the Spanish Fork Fairgrounds, Spanish Fork Sports Complex or Salem Hills High School on Saturday and utilize the shuttle busses. There will be 8 busses running throughout the day. On Sunday attendees can park at the Spanish Fork Sports Park and catch one of the three shuttle busses to the Temple. Shuttle bus tickets are $2 per person for a roundtrip ride to the festival and back to the parking lot. A portion of the proceeds will go to the local Boy Scouts who will be directing the parking.