Holi {The Festival of Colors}

For a couple of years now, I have been having a recurring dream...

  

It is always the same.

I can hear music and joyful shouting.  Then I feel a cloud of dry air (like powdered chalk) surround me, and I panic for a second, not able to breathe.

 

But then, very quickly, a calm washes over me...

I open my eyes a tiny bit, only to feel my eyelashes heavy with fuchsia dust...

I see a man lost in the moment...

   

And then, there is this happiness that fills the inside of my being, and I start to dance, while colorful powder rains, in abundance...

   

  

Sometimes, I wake up from a dream, to find my dream morphing into reality (like the giant lobster sized scorpion dream).  And then, like a shock wave, I grab myself and say,"Oh my goooodnessss!!  I dreamt that last night!!!"

Every year, new and incredible photos emerge from people's experiences at "Holi - The Festival of Colors..."

   

   

   

The first time I saw these images, I almost fell over.  They were almost like stepping into my recurring dream (described above). And I thought - perhaps I have traveled to Holi, through dreamscapes?

   

I don't know about you but, I have a crazy active dream-life.  Mister Lovee does not.  Isn't that curious?  He says that he never dreams.  Ever.  (He has only shared one vivid dream since I have known him)

Do you have a vivid and active dream life?

   

Many of my art visions tap me on my shoulder while deep in dreamland, and I hold on as tight as I can to those visions, while spinning through the clouds, traveling towards waking (whilst hoping to have brought back a smidgen of memory)...

I was a very serious sleepwalker as a child.  I would walk through screen doors, and more wild tales.

I studied dream analysis when I was young teen, and recently saw a fascinating dream documentary.  The brain is so amazing and mind bogglingly wonderful, isn't it?

Still, I can't help but wonder, if in all of this, the message to me is to get over my long distance dream phobias, and head to Holi next year?

   

Possibly Maybe?  Wanna come?

All photos from http://www.pixcetera.com/blog/2010/03/01/holi-the-festival-of-colors/ (photo credits (not in order): Manish Swarup AP, Daniel Berehulak Getty Images, Bikas Das AP, Anupam Nath AP - follow above link for more images and details)

Comments

[Lori Anderson]

Very pretty.

[A Forest Frolic]

Oh my goodness Vanessa, that has got to be an amazing experience...I wish I could go! But, if you get the chance, I could totally see you dancing around in bright colorful powder, tee hee! Beautiful photos...very inspirational!

Jamie :)

[Lynn]

Beautiful! I saw something about this festival on a documentary once (can't remember what it was called). We sure could use some extra color up here with the weather being grey grey and grey.
My husband has lots of crazy dreams, way more than I do.

[sadira]

This is absolutely extraordinary V!! I would LOVE to go to a festival like that...can you imagine how fun it would be to wear each color? And then take a bubble bath?! Tee-hee...seriously though, it would be an amazing experience.

[eleni]

wonderful photos!

[Anna]

Thank you so much for sharing these amazing photos and your dream as well. I love the absolute joy on the people's faces. You can almost feel the colors washing over you! One of my dear friends is Indian and I will have to phone her up right now and ask her all about it! And I do dream quite alot. Some are strangely prophetic, others silly and some just plain odd!

[Alia]

Oh my that looks intense and so much fun! I have lots of dreams. Pretty much a vivid one most nights. I can't always remember them entirely when I wake up, but usually pieces linger. It can be fun having so many dreams, but only when they are good ones!

[Sarah]

If you had to invent a festival, it would be hard to come up with a better one than Holi! I love the idea of it. It would indeed be great to go!

[Maria-Thérèse]

How cool!
I have a very vivid dream life. Sometimes I continue to think a dream was for real well into the day. Even when it's about lemurs with glass eyes and seagulls in a locker room. I woke up thinking - hey, where'd the lemur go? (Only to discover there WAS no lemur and I woke up 1,5 hours late and had to hurry hurry to the art days I was participating in.)

[Natasha]

I love these pictures!
I was a crazy sleepwalker too and I have very vivid dreams. My favourite one was where I was a smuggler on a giant space station. Smuggling contraband Duran Duran cds!

[Deborah]

How fantastical!!! I've never heard of this and am about to check it out. I was a sleep walker as a child and still have very vivid dreams. One night I dreamed that hubby cheated on me...promptly woke up and punched him in the arm, then had to explain to him why! I was so angry at him all day long! **blows kisses** Deb

[Blanca]

I blogged about Holi in the spring and posted some pix you might like. Unfortunately, during my travels to India I have never had the opportunity to experience this magical time. You absolutely must go see for yourself...India is an AMAZING country!! Hope you enjoy mypost :)
http://sweetlime-and-savorysnack.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html

[Kim]

Vanessa:

Thank you for sharing your dream experience. I have very vibrant and colorful dreams as well. And...my husband does not!! Even as a child, I had very curious, odd and sometimes scary dreams/nightmares. The colors in my art pieces come directly from my dreams. I collect vintage photos, and lots of the "characters" in my old photos stand about in the backgrounds of my dreams. I still have "screaming dreams" occasionally too!!

There absolutely must be a tie to vibrant dreams/nightmares and artistic folks!! Don't you agree?

Kim
Gerushia's New World

[natalea]

oh what i wouldn't give to go to experience Holi! if you ever decide to go, invite me...let's go together- ok?!
I do have a crazy dream life too...
xo

[amy sperry faldet]

That would be the most amazing trip, ever. I am not wealthy in terms of going on trips, haven't traveled, funds go to four little ones, being home for that, leaks in the kitchen unfinished upstairs hallways, etc. Yet, what an intention that would be. Wayne Dyer would say if you want to be filled with light and color at Holi next year then you intend the money, the opportunity, the sitter, and there you will be. I love dreaming. Thanks for the fun thoughts you planted. Blessings dear one.

[Tricia McWhorter]

What a magical post!! How very cool that you discovered an actual festival that mirrors your dream!! You should ABSOLUTELY go.

I, too, have vivid colorful and intense dreams. The important ones wake me up so I'll remember them. Many of the images from my dreams I carry in my pocket like jewels.

[rebecca]

Wow, that looks so cool! Maybe, SOMEDAY, I'll go, when I'm an adult. My dream life is so-so. I don't have magical dreams, I have random dreams. People from my life and people from movies appear. And complete strangers.

I'd like to ask you for some advice. I'm trying to practice a bit of art. I don't have much experience, and my drawings look terrible...do you have any advice on how to become a better artist? Just wondering... ;)

[Laura]

That looks like such an amazing experience. I'm going to have to google it later and find out more about it. I have lots of very vivid and strange dreams and often have many that come true.
blessings
~*~

[Theresa]

Wow, Vanessa! This is so amazing...it's so alive and real yet fantastically dreamlike. How amazing it is to be so free, awash in colors and living in a virtual candy-colored dream. Perhaps you should go - or create your own festival of color! :) Thank you for sharing photos! Theresa

[Fair Rosamund]

Very beautiful photos, that looks like it would be an amazing experience! I have a very active dream-life. I have lots of nightmares too unfortunatley, even though I avoid scary movies and such. Dreams are so interesting though, I wouldn't have it any other way! Hope you are having a good week :) ~Lauren

[Pat]

Perhaps we're related? :-) I have constant dreams, very active, lots of people most of the time, etc. I also sleep walked as a child ~ all sorts of activities!

Thank you for sharing and yes, perhaps this is a calling you might heed. Interesting, huh?

xoxo
Pat

[Elaine L.]

Good, Golly, Gosh! Your posts are always so amazing.

~elaine~

[Tara G]

OH Do come!!!

We play every year. You can't get away from it here. It's a weird, crazy, overwhelming.. sometimes annoying experience!!
I quit playing a few years ago as it takes days for the colours to wear off and people go to office looking like baboons. Which is a nice change from looking too human.

I think the Pictures are from Varanasi/ Benaras?
The seat of the Ganges. India's most holy river.( now something like a drain :( )

[Jennifer]

WOWIE - those pics from the festival look so unbelievable. I think it looks like SO much fun, too fun to miss out on. You must go next year! As for me, I have three kids and getting to India may not work out right now. And I do have dreams, sometimes rather strange ones that I wake up and say: WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? IS IT A SIGN? :-) I attempted to work on my chandelier last night - of which it will be a work in progress. I'm inspired though! :-) Happy Wednesday to you!

[Rhonda Roo]

That's waaay better than throwing tomatoes at each other.
xoxoxox

[Marjorie]

what beautiful images! And your dream travels are so lovely!! I always have recurring dreams (my whole life) about the same, old house....it changes bit by bit, sometimes it's very old, and empty and abandoned with covering on the furniture, and other times it's a busy as an inn.....all surrounded with palmettos and just on the river's edge....It's most certainly hiding there just now, even as I type.....the cicadas chirping away outside, in a deep summer afternoon of heat and humidity....snakes and lizards and butterflies everywhere in the jungle that surrounds it's wooden bones.

Perhaps I'll get to visit again soon! :)

[Candace]

I have this type dream life also. T doesn't. A mirror world of yours, Vanessa. I knew about this and saw a doc about it. Incredible. India is one of the places I have always been drawn to... and always plan for.

Dreamtime is the real time -- Australian aboriginal saying.

See you in my dreams. Of course, I don't sleepwalk. In my dreams, I FLY!
Candace, in Athens.

[Tristan Robin]

oh, I want to be all those colors, too!!! how magical!

nope - not a dreamer here. I do all my dreaming with my eyes wide open!

[Amy]

Vivid dreams, my whole life. I write them all down and illustrate them. They are the stuff of what I am made of. A lot of my dreams are premonitions and come true. I pay close attention to them. I love dreams...they are gifts.

[eva firda]

how breathtakingly beautiful - what an experience that would be.... one day perhaps, one day!

[Teri]

This year my daughter and I vowed to by some Holi Colors and go to the Golden Gate Park and have some fun! I dream often of the Holi Color celebration! They say you dream in Black and White, so maybe my mind fills in the color... but isn't that the same as dreaming in color? I would love to go and see this festival! Thank you again for your lovely post, you are appreciated!

[Princess Crystal]

How beautiful! What an amazing festival. I would love to go to something like that. This is an absolute dream.

[Marilyn]

I do believe you are a very color sensory person. Your blog is full of color. Definitely you should go next year. I have never heard of holi festival. Intriguing.

[heather]

Wow! Its amazing! You most definitely need to go :)

[liza jane]

What magical photos!! The yellow burst in the first photo looks like a bird wing, as if a giant yellow bird is landing. Do go so we can live vicariously through you! :)

[Jennifer]

There is something similiar in Utah every year, just as this! Maybe Utah is closer for you to travel there! You could enjoy being enveloped in a sea of indulgent bright colors!!! wheeeee...

Meanwhile.... continue dreaming those vivid dreams!

[cerri]

What stunning photos and it seems like an amazing experience.
I too, have vivid dreams. In fact, I have them all of the time. Most of my dreams play out like movies, and sometimes I am in them as a character and sometimes, I'm not in them at all, it's like watching a wonderful movie in my mind.
Sometimes I sleep late simply because I want to see the ending....
I have never met anyone whose dreams are quite like mine, but I'm sure someone else does this. :)
Cerri

[Miss Linda]

What an amazing place to be. Unfortunately I don't have vivid dreams but, after being at Holi, I more than likly would.

[somepinkflowers]

good grief!
get out!

that is MY dream,
too.

{{ good grief Xs 10 ! }}

:-0

must follow link
must follow link

♥

[Sara]

I think you definitely must go! It has always intrigued me as well...

[Shell]

I so love to be there, diving into all these colors.
I have an active and vivid dream life. My dreams have at times saved me when in my waking life things seemed horrible for me.
I love my dream world..sometimes it's even better than my waking life.

[Bec]

I had a college professor from India and his pet elephant would shoot people with colors on holi :)

[Teresa in California]

Hello, Miss Vanessa
I came across Holi, I think on Crescendoh, and I was absolutely amazed! Such wonderful color scapes. I dream in vivid color with the most intricate details like in a Michaelangelo's painting. I see the details in angels wings, with incredible depth when I dream. My sister thinks I am seeing 'visions' and I may, well be. All I know is, it is glorious, and it happens right as I am drifting off to sleep when I see fantastic scenes of thrones and otherworldly creatures. It makes me want to live there.
I also love 'What Dreams May Come' I love the visual surrealistic colorscapes. And the flying (floating in the air?) ladies and children. And of course, I have flown in my body in my dreams, it is such a rare feeling and definitely 'feels' real when I am dreaming about it.
So, yes, I can relate very well to what you experience in your dreams.
Thanks for sharing...
~Miss Teresa

[A Fanciful Twist]

OH YES!! I sent the Holi link to Crescendoh during my interview week
;) So you sure did see it there ;) Oh blessed miraculous dreams!!!
Arent they amazing?

[Linda]

I celebrated a Holi festival many years ago, in Spain, giant water guns they sprayed everyone with with different coloured dye,It was great fun, I walked back through the lemon groves sporting a very strange green colour.:) Lindax
I have always dreamed in colour too, until recently I thought everyone did.

[Elle]

The first thought i had was - what color skin do these people have! NO ONE WOULD KNOW!! I think this festival looks amazing!! It is now on my ever growing to do list for sure - thank you for sharing it.

I dream very vividly but can only remember much of them in those first few sleepy minutes of my day! I wish i could remember them better.

[Alice]

The Holi event sound amazing, though maybe a bit overwhelming.

I dream a lot. In color. Most of my dreams are very strange, all are vivid, and I have nightmares at least twice a week. Most of the time I can recall my dreams. If someone analyzed my dreams they might be tempted to put me in a straight jacket.

My husband rarely dreams, or at least he can't recall any dreams he might have had.

[karen fullerton]

Wow! How amazing! I love the photos. I love the dream feel, and love that you take us away with your posts. I enjoy them so much. Thank you.
xoxo
karen
http://weirdbirdstudio.blogspot.com

[Amisha]

Hailing from India, I am convinced that you wouldn't just love Holi but all the colors of India. I think the Indian saris might enchant you way too much and you may never want to leave.

[SueAnn]

I definitely have a vivid and active dream life as well. I grab on to them and try to bring them back with me...but that is so hard to do!
The Holi pictures are amazing. So much color!! Wow!
Hugs
SueAnn