Last week I posted that The Color Run might come to Bangor. As of right now I have no update on that, but …

… the American Folk Festival just announced that they’ll be doing a color running event on April 26 to raise money for the festival.

According to the press release, festival Executive Director Heather McCarthy said:

“These runs are enormously popular, extremely fun and rooted in an long-established Hindu and Indian tradition called the Holi or Festival of Colors. That tradition makes it an even better tie-in with the cultural experience the American Folk Festival brings to the Bangor Waterfront every summer.”

Wow. It actually does look pretty similar.

The history of the Holi celebration sounds awesome.

Holi is a spring festival also known as festival of colours, and sometimes festival of love. … In Braj region of India, where mythical Krishna grew up, the festival is celebrated for 16 days (until Rangpanchmi) in commemoration of the divine love of Radha for Krishna, a Hindu deity. There is a symbolic myth behind commemorating Krishna as well. Baby Krishna transitioned into his characteristic dark blue skin colour because a she demon Putana poisoned him with her breast milk. According to the myth, in his youth, Krishna despairs whether fair skinned Radha and other Gopikas (girls) will like him because of his skin colour. His mother tired of the desperation, asks him to approach Radha and colour her face in any colour he wanted. This he does, and Radha and Krishna became a couple. The playful colouring of the face of Radha has henceforth been commemorated as Holi.

I can’t do it justice in this blog post, so you should go read about it.

The event is going to take place on April 26, a little later then the spring equinox, but lets be honest, this is Maine and no one wants to strip down to a T-shirt on March 21.

Registration is $40 if you register before April 4, and $50 after (about standard costs for a ‘color’ run). All proceeds will benefit the American Folk Festival. To register for Color Bangor, visit americanfolkfestival.com or call the American Folk Festival office at 992-2630.