Nicole's Indian Odyssey: My First Indian Festival!!!!!!!!

Today was Janmashtami MY FIRST INDIAN FESTIVAL which is an Indian festival celebrating Lord Krishna’s birthday and it was amazing! I cannot tell you exactly what happened or why, but it was very fun! I will take it from the top. Monday Morning I went to a parade with George a fellow exchange student from Deutschland and we were both utterly confused and it probably did not help that we had just woken up. From what I could tell there was a crowd of people in the street chanting and banging the drums which created an indescribable energy. From the second or third story someone ties a thick rope across the street and on that rope they hang a (flower) pot filled with colored water and covered in fruit which they call a mutki. Someone starts banging their drums (which I learned to do too ^^) and then the crowd simultaneously comes alive and start marching in a circle. The men form a pyramid in the center just as cheerleaders would and they hoist people into the air to do things like flips and blowing fire. Why they do this I am clueless, I have a hunch that it is just for show, but when I asked people they just tell me that “It is god”. That probably doesn’t make any sense to you either because I think that “It is god” is the Indian answer when they actually have no idea what things are. I have been told that so many times. Everything is god! Anyways the huddle of men throws those people down and raises one single man into the air and he has a very special task. He has to take “Baby Krishna” into the air in order to have the baby break open a pot called a mushka which sprays pink water on the baby. After I heard the story of the religious significance behind the festival it made a little more sense. The story of Krishna is that when he was a baby he liked to drink cream from a mushka so they reenact this idea in a festival. When I was watching this I did not understand why any of these things were happening. So I was like OMG why are they throwing that crying baby dressed in a ridiculous costume into the air to break open a pot onto its head! It just looked insane but it was really fun! Also I brought my professional camera with me so everyone thought that I was the newspaper and they ushered me to a special place where I could take the best pictures and then people posed for some really good pictures. This is not the first time this has happened to me either. Every time I take that camera everyone on the street asks me to take a picture of them and then they pose. I love it though. I have gotten some really artistic and beautiful pictures. I have only been here a month and I have over 2,000 pictures! Showing you the pictures will make much more sense to you than just telling you about it because like I said I do not know exactly what happened. This “parade” is repeated throughout the entire day until midnight. Every neighborhood has one of these parades so I went to three of them. At midnight is the exact time when Krishna was born so that it when the true celebration is. It is not as grand as what takes place during the day but it is still nice. At midnight the family gets together and offers a food offering to Krishna and then of course we eat it. It would not be an Indian festival without eating ;) It was a beautiful festival and I cannot wait to see more. This by far was not the most extravagant of the Indian festivals. This festival marks the beginning of festival season. From now on there is a festival almost every week! I cannot wait! I will update you on everything! Talk to you then. Jai che Krishna ^^.