Photographer: Stephen Janousek
While spring takes its sweet time to poke up through the ground and warm the breeze, at least one signal arrives with a sudden flourish. For many local Hindus, the season starts with a burst of colored powder at the annual Holi festival at the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of Iowa a few miles north of Granger.
Every year, nearly a thousand revelers — Hindu faithful and guests alike — celebrate the ancient holiday by hurling handfuls of pigment at one another in a giddy throng at the base of the temple’s ornately carved tower. DJs blast Bhangra dance music. Kids ride on their parents’ shoulders. Everyone lets loose in a kaleidoscope of color and joy.
The festival signifies a time of rebirth and rejuvenation, a time to look forward with hope and let go of negative energy. It’s celebrated in India, Nepal, other South Asian countries and across the diaspora.
Here in Iowa, the big day lands on March 16. iowatemple.org
The ornately carved Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of Iowa opened in 2005 to host community events for Hindus and visitors of all ages.
A Hindu priest tends a fire at the Holi ceremony that begins the festival. After celebrants walk in a circle around the flames, they spin off to dance on the temple’s plaza. Another spring begins.
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