The Festival of Colors: Holi in Naperville, May 14

Holi is the one Hindu festival that needs no translation. Spring arrives, the colors come out, and for a few hours everyone in the vicinity — friend, stranger, grandparent, toddler — gets covered in gulal. Naperville got its own version on May 14, 2011, when the Simply Vedic Cultural Society, a local nonprofit, brought its annual Festival of Colors to the Grand Pavilion at the Naperville Riverwalk.

What makes a diaspora Holi different?

The ritual is the same — colored powder thrown in good fun, forgiveness, and the odd reunion — but the setting gives it a second job. For Indian-American kids growing up in the Chicago suburbs, Holi is the one day their heritage stops being something they explain and becomes something they just do, shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of other families.

The Naperville festival runs in the Society's familiar format: free admission, bags of safe, starch-based colors sold for a couple of dollars each (outside colors are not allowed, for safety), live music and dance performances through the day, vegetarian food from local vendors, and a group color throw on the hour that covers the Riverwalk lawn in a single breath of red, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

Why go?

Because Holi works best in public. It is the year's biggest fundraiser for the Simply Vedic Cultural Society's senior and youth programs, and it is one of the few afternoons on the Naperville calendar where the whole point is to laugh, get messy, and throw your worries to the wind in a handful of color. Wear old clothes, bring a sealable bag for your phone, and apply a layer of sunscreen or hair oil before you arrive — cleanup is much easier for it.