“Spring is far more than just a changing of seasons; it’s a rebirth of the spirit.” —Toni Sorenson
Travel always allows me to have a renewed spirit. But the two-month trip I took to India, Sri Lanka and Nepal enabled me to celebrate literally every culture’s spring holiday, in some of cases all at once. It was an experience I doubt I will ever have again and added an unexpected excellence to an already fabulous trip.
I left Los Angeles during Ramadan and not only changed planes in the observant Persian Gulf, but encountered those who observed every step of the way. On some trips travelers can make special connections; this connection was like no other since it was multi-cultural and became an unexpected theme of my trip.
With Ramadan playing in the background for thirty days and knowing the Hindu celebration of Holi was before me in India, I was surprised to encounter even a mild discussion of Passover while in Mumbai at the start of the trip during my independent travels. I had taken a one-day tour of Jewish Mumbai, which included visiting four synagogues in the area, one time more Jewish than it is today. The Chabad synagogue where the Rabbi and his wife were killed during the Mumbai massacres of 2008 was one of them. When I chatted with the current Rabbi, he asked me if I was interested in attending their Passover Sedar. I did not even know when Passover was of course. He told me, and I said I would be in Nepal then. So, he got to work behind his computer and found a Passover Seder for me in Nepal which I really wasn’t interested in and was going to be travelling with Overseas Adventure Travel then anyway. I was not even going to be in Kathmandu then. I would hardly have expected this in Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim Southern Asia, so it came as a real surprise. But then, so did my encounter with all the spring holidays on the trip.
There is a Hindu celebration every month in India, so it’s easy to join any of them while traveling and observe the local customs. I was in Southern India for Pongal in 2017 and participated in the festivities. On this trip I was In Mumbai for Holi, a colorful festival which celebrates the start of Spring. I saw the young people with paint on them, the orange flags flying in Aurangabad, the burning on the side of the road on the way back to Mumbai. Most we saw on the streets went on about their daily business, others colorfully sporting paint. When I returned to the hotel in Mumbai the hotel staff were happy to see me again and wished me happy Holi. This was the day after I finished seeing the cave complexes in Aurangabad. I paid for it at the end of three days, and had to time it so the owner of the small tour provider had finished his Ramadan Break the Fast gathering.
After twelve days touring Mumbai and Aurangabad, I flew to Sri Lanka. I had a tour scheduled there with Gate 1 Travels, and had another five days after that traveling independently, On the first day of the tour, while walking around colorful Negombo, we saw churches in progress. It was Good Friday, and the many churches were celebrating, but for a reason I wouldn’t have known; because exactly five years ago there were ISIS attacks in the Catholic churches there, so Good Friday was as a day of remembrance. Many stores were closed as well. Easter Sunday passed completely unrecognized, as did Passover in both Sri Lanka and Nepal, which I would have expected.
After the Sri Lanka tour was over, I had five nights in the Colombo Hilton on my own. I had no idea that was a Muslim majority country with a beautiful red mosque in the city”s capitol. The Hilton where I stayed after the tour and much of the city of Colombo was celebrating Eid, the end of Ramadan. The Tamil new year was in full swing as well as Hindu New Year. One of the joys of unstructured travel time is the ability to see what is in the country at the moment. At the Hilton I was hanging loose, and they walked me outside to show me the new year celebrations they had in place for all the guests on the other side of their beautiful koi pond, all lit with white lights and prayer flags. There was also free food, games for children, and chai tea. They also had a special buffet. I intended to have dinner there the following night to enjoy the festivities, but it was pouring rain! I tried the next day to return to the red mosque, but it was closed to non-worshippers during Ramadan. The Ramadan Kareem greeting was in the hotel lobby.
My next leg of the trip was two weeks in Nepal with the Overseas Adventure Travel trip Nepal and the Mystical Himalayas. I experienced all seven of the UNESCO World Heritage sites, and Hindu new year celebrations were still going on for the year 2081. Everyone dressed in festival attire, many wearing red saris everywhere. At one of the Dubar Square sites (there are four in Kathmandu) I was completely in my travel element as parades walked by, people stopped in various shrines and temples for Hindu blessings, gave offerings, lit enough candles to create a small fire, drew colorful painted signs of celebration on the ground as I have seen in Tamil Pongal celebrations, and so much more. Since the Hindu Tamil new year and the Buddhist New Year were at the same time, I saw the Buddhist celebration when we went to the Monkey Temple.
But when it came to seeing these celebrations, every day kept getting better than the day before! There are several auspicious days on the Hindu calendar each month (and some months none at all), and we were in Kathmandu for at least one of them. So we saw many weddings celebrated including at two of our hotels. When we went to the UNESCO world heritage site at Patan, along the way we also saw Hindu children emerging from a ceremony. At age eight the girls marry the Lord Shiva, and the boys get their heads shaved at age five. The girls we saw who emerged all had red on their feet after the ceremony was over, and the families posed for everyone.
Joy seemed to be everywhere on this trip. The joyousness of springtime. The cheerfulness of the celebrations for the world’s great religions, simultaneously. The happiness of wedding celebrations on Hindu Auspicious days. And most definitely, this added to the abundance of elation I felt in my travels. When my two months were over, I did not want to go home. Travel and this kind of bliss had become my life, my plane ticket merely a reminder of my journey’s end. I packed my renewed spirit, my unique remembrances of Ramadan, Holi, Passover, Good Friday, and the Hindu Tamil and Buddhist New Year, and headed for the airport. Sitting in the plane safely headed for Los Angeles, I realized that my true destination was unknown.
All Photos Jann Segal
Travel the World with Passion 