This is mid-March where Winter is on its way out and Spring is arriving. All cultures worldwide celebrate this transition, for the town to come out of their winter doldrums, people end their cabin fever and reconnect and interact with other members of the community.
United States being a cauldron of international cultures, one saw all this occurring in the same town and on the same day. Yesterday we participated in a smorgasbord of ethnic cultures festivals. It started 10:00 am with St. Patrick's Day parade. The Irish showed off their bag-pipes, ethnic costumes and dance, Irish setters, etc. At 2:00 PM was the Pysanki Festival. Pysanki is the Eastern European tradition of decorating (Easter) eggs. At 5:00 PM it was Fritz's (German) Polka band playing at the Smoking Gun Saloon; and we danced to Polka, Waltz, Cha-Cha etc. At 8:00 PM it was celebrating the Indian color festival of Holi with more food, music and gharba. Burnt off at least 2000 calories.:=)) We had to miss the Italians celebrating St. Joseph's feast (with a dinner-dance). To all Goanetters who also had a good time celebrating this weekend - Salut! B.T.W. these celebrations were open to all. A good lesson to Diaspora Goans, who exclude other Goans from their celebrations because its "members only". Kind Regards, GL
