SPRING: Coachella, Songkran, Holi, Qingming

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly; Coachella; Leigh Morgan; ES; Wiki; Tess Christine; AL; Catrific

(Coachella) At the close of every successful corporate event, a "Thank You" video is released.

Spring 2017: When is the vernal equinox?

Leigh Morgan (AL.com, March 16, 2017)

Squirt guns at Coachella? Not allowed! This is Buddhist Thailand's Songkran Festival.

 

[Happy Vernal Equinox!] There's no "official" start of spring, but for most the vernal or spring equinox marks the start of the season.

The vernal equinox is on Monday, March 20, 2017 at 5:28 am CDT. That marks the exact time when the sun crosses over the equator and the length of days and nights will be almost equal.
 
The day that comes the closest to having 12 hours of equal day and night is actually March 16th.

 
For example, in Alabama on March 16 the day length is 12 hours and 6 seconds in Birmingham, 11:59:51 in Huntsville, and 12:00:40 in Mobile.  More

Coachella Festival

Coachella performance? Not on your life. This vixen is an exhibitionist at a 45 Grave show.

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The Father of Rock 'n Roll

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, located in the Inland Empire's Coachella Valley, in the Colorado Desert. It was co-founded by Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen in 1999 and organized by Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of AEG Live as of 2001. The event features many genres of music, including rock, indie, hip hop, and electronic dance music, as well as art installations and sculptures. Across the grounds, several stages continuously host live music. The main stages are the: Coachella Stage, Gobi Tent, Mojave Tent, Outdoor Theatre, Sahara Tent, and the Yuma stage was introduced in 2013. More

• Obituary: Chuck Berry, American rock and roll innovator, guitarist, singer dead at age 90
• DATES: When is My Spring Break 2017? (StudentCity.com) 

TRAVEL VLOG: Coachella 2016

(VLOG) Tess Christine wants to make everyone jealous in an extended FB-style post about how awesome her life and travels are. Be jealous or it will have been a waste of time and $. Paid?*

Songkran, Water Festival, Thailand

Ali Raza (Behance.net)

Thais in Thailand: Quit it! - No, you quit it! - But this is my best royal garb! - Stop!

Songkran, also known as the Thai New Year’s festival, is an annual event. It is the largest national event in Thailand, involving what is probably the biggest water fight in the world. It is held on April 13th, but the celebration extends to the 14th and 15th.

The major celebrations of Songkran Festival (celebrating the New Year and the arrival of spring) are similar to India's Holi Festival, China's Qingming Festival, and Christendom's Easter.

One Night in Bangkok (behance.net)

Thais throw water at each other for no good reason and symbolically wipe off all misfortunes of the past year, thereby greeting the New Year with a fresh start. The single drawback to the lively festivities is the vast number of fatal traffic accidents caused by drunk drivers: over 364 during the 2014 three-day celebration. More
 

China: Qingming (Ching Ming) Festival

Indonesian Chinese on Qingming (wiki)

The festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English, is a traditional Chinese festival on the first day of the fifth solar term of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar.

This makes it the 15th day after the Spring Equinox, either April 4th or 5th in a given year. Other common translations include Chinese Memorial Day and Ancestors' Day.

Qingming has been regularly observed as a statutory public holiday in China. In Taiwan, the public holiday is now always observed on April 5th to honor the death of Chiang Kai-shek on that day in 1975. It became a public holiday in mainland China in 2008.

On the mainland, the holiday is associated with the consumption of qingtuan, green dumplings made of glutinous rice and barley grass. In Taiwan, the similar confection is known as caozaiguo or shuchuguo. A similar holiday is observed in the Ryukyu Islands, called Shīmī in the local language. More 

India: Festival of Colors/Love

Holi is celebrated on many dates (events.sulekha.com/holi-festival-events-tickets), Utah.

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First was the word: om

Holi in Pasadena, in L.A.'s San Gabriel Valley, was recently celebrated with great fanfare, if almost entirely by ex-pats and families.

But it is open to all, even Scottish yoginis in linen yoga pants from APU trying to study Hinduism and become like Pretty Woman Julia Roberts, the most prominent American convert to the Sanatan Dharma, the "Eternal Truth," as Hinduism calls itself.

Hindu, actor, yogini Julia Roberts

How is it celebrated? Easy. Bring water and colored powder, or buy it on site, then throw it, laugh, and run. Legal in most states but probably not all. Check with local officials.

HOLI (Sanskrit, होली Holī) is a Hindu spring festival celebrated in India and Nepal (and wherever Indians and Nepalis live abroad), also known as the "Festival of Colors" or the "Festival of Love."

It signifies the victory of good over evil, the arrival of spring, the end of winter, and for many a festive day to meet others, play, laugh, forget, forgive, and repair broken relationships.

Friends in Holi forgiveness and thanksgiving

It is also celebrated as a thanksgiving for a good harvest. It lasts for a night and a day, starting on the evening of the purnima (full moon day) falling on the Vikram Samvat Hindu Calendar month of Phalgun, which falls somewhere between the end of February and the middle of March on the Gregorian calendar. More

• ThePasadenaHinduTemple.org
• Indian Events Around the World
• Holi on the Beach, L.A. (sulekha.com)

*(Catrific) Get PAID to go to Coachella and vlog about it. It sucks.