Holi Hai in Busan

On Sunday, March 22nd,  the other half of our weekend trip, we headed back towards the east side of the country towards our giant neighboring city of Busan. On Haeundae Beach on the southeast side of the city, there was a giant celebration for Holi Hai.
Holi Hai is an ancient Hindu festival held in spring. It's also called the 'festival of colors'. It primarily involves a massive singing and dancing party while colors are thrown and rain down everywhere. People use powdered colors as well as colored water or even wet paint to throw at other participants or just into the air to rain down on everyone.
There is a large population of Indians living in Korean that likely brought this festival to Busan every spring, but in recent years the celebration has become very popular among other non-Hindu, southeast Asian countries and of course the many open-minded and adventurous foreigners that travel there.


I left my camera on the bus because I didn't have anything to guaruntee the safety of it from all the paint, but thankfully our experience was still documented through the use of my friends' devices: go pros, cell phones in plastic bags, and other well protected cameras.


The party on the beach began at noon and raged on until about 3pm. There was a DJ playing Indian-style dance music through giant speakers that projected the excitement of the festival through the whole beach.



It was impossible to avoid the flying colors, and who would want to? Everyone wore old white t-shirts (or bought one specifically for the occasion) to purposely spice it up with some fabulous pigments. Within moments of entering the crowd, your entire body, face and hair were soon dyed to look like the rainbow.




The crowd was giant and energized. Of course there ended up being lots of crazy moments, including friends on each others shoulders and helping some other brave souls crowd surf.


There were lots of people taking breaks from dancing, they were either sitting in circles on the beach drinking their soju and beer, or getting into the freezing, ocean water for a little refreshment. To my excitement, the guards patrolling the beach were offering short rides on the back of their jet skis to many of the girls that were willing to jump into the cold water. I tried to get a ride too when I found out about it, but apparently I wasn't aggressive enough about it. There were too many girls that wanted a ride and were rude and forceful enough to keep pushing in front of me to get there first. By the end, all of my friends were laughing at my misfortune as I stood shivering and defeated in the cold water after each attempt.



Holi Hai ended up being an amazingly unique and fun experience. I'm so glad my friends found out about it and planned the trip together. I'd always kind of wanted to do a color run before, and after this experience, I want to do one even more.


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