Ratha Yatra ~ Festival of India

Where will you find Benjamin Franklin wearing a flower lei and mingling with the Hare Krishnas?? In Philadelphia, of course. The City of Brotherly Love.

On Saturday, the Festival of India started with a parade from City Hall, down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, ending near the Art Museum. It was a day of vegan/vegetarian food, crafts, dance, and music.

We've been to Indian events before and the mood is very happy. Along the parade route devotees of Sri Krisha chanted and followed the Ratha Yatra Chariot. Of course I join in at times....
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

From Wikipedia:
"Hare Krishna" brings to mind, for many, the conspicuous Hare Krishna devotees, who first appeared on the streets of Western cities in the 1960's and 1970s, dancing and chanting with drums and cymbals, wearing saffron dhotis or colourful saris, and selling Bhagavad Gita As It Is and similar literatures. These devotees were members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), founded by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. ISKCON was the first organised Vaishnava group to make a large impression outside of India. Now a number of such Vaishnava groups are preaching in the Western world, such as the Sri Krishna Chaitany Mission and other lineages of the Gaudiya Math.
From a theological perspective Hare Krishna devotees are classified as practitioners of Bhakti Yoga. They are also referred to as Gaudiya Vaishnavas because they follow a line of gurus descending from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who appeared in Bengal (Gauda is an old name of Bengal). Vaishnavism comes under the general banner of being a Hindu religion.
Most serious 'Hare Krishna' practitioners live according to strict rules. For example, initiates take vows to abstain from all forms of recreational drugs and intoxicants (including caffeine), from eating meat, fish and eggs, from gambling, and from all sexual relations except for purposes of procreation within marriage. For non-initiates how many of these rules to follow is left to one's own discretion, but these four 'regulative principles' remain as a standard.

I'm not a Hare Krishna. I don't practice Bhakti Yoga. I don't even prefer Prabhupada's translation of the Bhagavad Gita. I have that version but when I work with it's message, I use Paramahansa Yogananda's translation or another of many that I have. But I do love the energy at festivals of this type. The colorful dress, the smells of exotic food, the music.

I have always enjoyed Hindu art and have this beautiful picture in our living room of Lord Krishna and his Consort Radha. Our home is a mixture of many things from a few different cultures. Some walls are painted purple, some red. There are Buddha's and Indian portraits and Korean items. East meets West in every corner of our house.

At the festival, my friend Sahari and I got henna tattoos. I had a wrist band done while she got a ring on her finger.

We tried some of the Indian food. She bought a beautiful table runner. I got a t-shirt with the AUM symbol on it. My husband and son went too. They have no problem going to exotic festivals and walking along with me as I take pictures and oogle over all the colorful clothing. But when it comes time to eat, they don't particularly like vegan type food. They wandered off down the parkway in search of meat. Luckily, hot dog vendors are fairly easy to find in the City. On the way home they also stopped for take-out at their favorite rib place.

Other things we passed on our way home:

Philadelphia's City Hall. It has upwards of 700 rooms and is the largest municipal building in the United States and one of the largest in the World. A bronze statue of William Penn, the found of the city, stands on top. The scaffolding around his statue is for a cleaning and waxing job currently underway.

Philadelphia is nationally and internationally recognized as America's "City of Murals." Here are a couple we saw today:

Edward "Chick" Davis, a pool-hall owner and billiards expert.
'The painting, which was sponsored by the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, is on the 1400 block of South Street, where one of Mr. Davis' businesses was. When he operated pool halls, his daughter said, he allowed men and women and blacks and whites to play. He taught anyone who wanted to learn the game, she said, and never permitted gangs, drugs or illegal activities.'