Holi Festival of Colors

On April 16th, Triform celebrated Holi, the Indian Festival of Colors, to welcome the spring with full gusto. There were snacks, games, laughter and of course, a lot of colors. The event was planned in two parts: an afternoon with games, colors and snacks; and an evening with an Indian classical music concert by Neel Murgai and Brooklyn Raga Massive and Ray Spiegel.


Afternoon: 
Everyone started to gather at 2:45 pm. Each of the Triform house's were assigned a color and brought snacks of the same color. We created a play area as well as a safe area for people who just wanted to watch.

The play area was made up with picnic benches arranged in a circle. The benches were assigned a certain color and house. After saying hello to each other with colors we got started with the games. We played the games 'Under the Tower', 'Stop Song' and 'Color, Color Goose'! The games were taken from the classic games and adapted for the color play. There was a white sheet with "Holi" written in rainbow colors to provide the background. The kids were equally at ease at play as any of the elders.

Evening:
Guests started to arrive for the concert at 7:00pm. Friends from Camphill Village in Copake came to watch the concert and take part in the celebrations. At the entrance to Falcon Hall there was a fire pit. Each house sent one object that they did not need anymore. It was offered to "Agni" the fire god, as symbolic gesture for purification, freeing ourselves from things we do not need anymore. (spring cleaning!)

Once the Hall was full, Aroon gave a small introduction and the musicians appeared, diving straight into the ragas. At intermission we offered Indian Masala tea and the audience mingled with the musicians. Neel and Ray took this opportunity to explain the instruments, Table and Sitar, to the audience. They are both accomplished musicians and music teachers with many years of experience performing Indian classical music live, in theaters and films. They introduced the basic concepts of Indian classical music and the instruments they were playing. The audience was mesmerized with these incredible ragas.

The event was organized by a group of seven co-workers and it took weeks of careful planning and organizing to make this event happen. We could not have done it without you all. Thank you to everyone who helped with the planning.

 For more photos from the Holi Festival visit our Facebook page.