THUNDER BAY - Cassie Brannan said she wasn’t even planning on leaving the house on Sunday, but luckily she was talked into joining in on one of the city’s most popular festivals where she threw all her worries to the wind.
“I wasn’t even going to leave the house today, so I will say yes, I definitely threw away all my worries,” she said. “I was forced out and I am grateful that I was because it was super fun and made me smile. Good job Thunder Bay.”
"It was a lot of fun," Jennifer Wilson added. "It was chaos and colour."
Thousands of people took part in the chaos and colour of the annual Festival of Colours at Marina Park on Sunday, closing a weekend of Indian culture that began with the 10thanniversary of the Festival of India on Saturday.
“Yesterday was a gorgeous day,” said Prashant Jani, festival organizer. “Thousands of people came and today we can see we have thousands of people here. Everybody is enjoying the colour throw, there are a lot of young children here, I am really happy to see all the people here.”
The ancient Indian festival known as Holi began as a celebration of spring and the colour throw is meant to represent throwing all your worries into the air to be taken away by the wind.
“When you throw the colours in the sky, which means throw the worries in the wind, live your life joyful and happy, love each other, serve each other, make your life wonderful,” Jani said.
When the festival first began four years ago, there were only 40 people and last year more than 3,500 people came out to participate.
And everyone was there, from young kids throwing handfuls of colour at one another, entire families, to Ontario Provincial Police recruitment officer, Justin Cancelliere, who might have some explaining to do when it comes to his newly coloured uniform.
“I think it’s great,” he said. “I wish I had participated in this before. I’m glad I did this year. I think it’s really important, it’s a good sense of community, it brings people together and I’m glad I took part in it.”
For Paige Lambert and her friends McKenzie Kostiuk, Annie Mallon, and Mia Steele, the colour throw was a lot of fun, but so was learning some new Indian dance moves and words.
“It was fun because you can learn new things and it’s interesting to learn new cultures,” Paige said.
“It’s great to see everybody out for a great cause and doing the same thing,” Brannan added. “People are working together, people are smiling together, and people are having fun together. It’s wonderful to see. I love it.”
