A Bollywood flash mob took over Franklin Street in downtown Juneau Monday night, followed by dozens of people throwing colorful powders at each other.
It was all part of Juneau’s third Holi Festival. Holi is a Hindu holiday, often called the Festival of Colors, celebrating love and harmony.
Nimmy Philips is the owner of Indian restaurant Spice, which hosts the festival.
“The Hindu festival traditionally is to celebrate the love of Lord Krishna and Radha and the triumph of good over evil,” Philips said on Juneau Afternoon last week.
Ruth Fisher performed a dance with Philips to a song she holds dear.
“The most important song to me out of all was the Vande Mataram song, which means ‘thank you to the motherland,’ so it could be any motherland,” Fisher said. “It’s not just our country, it’s everybody’s motherland.”
One of the dancers, MJ Grande, said she was just happy to be a part of the celebration.
“I’m dancing tonight, and I hope people have a really good time because Nimmy is brilliant and great, and the rest of us are having a good time,” she said.
After the dance, some performers mixed cups full of colored powder.
“The idea is to spread the colors around so people will have them on their clothes and on the street, and it’ll be a very colorful display,” said Tara Kovach. “We’ve got pink and orange and purple and yellow and green — pretty much every color you can think of.”
Soon shrieks of laughter and clouds of color and filled the air, leaving a splotchy rainbow across North Franklin Street — and the attendees.
Gary Totwani came with his family. He said the festival brought back growing up in India.
“It reminds me of a childhood memory,” he said.
Next year, he said, he and his wife will join the dancers.
