Source: Newsday

On March 31, 2002, Newsday reported that "more than 2,000 Hindus celebrated the start of their new year by showering each other with powder, symbolizing renewal, and parading along Liberty Avenue... Organizers said the Police Department cautioned against using powder in this year's festival, because of the anthrax scare last fall. But that did not keep celebrants from dousing themselves with baby powder and other powders in many hues and squirting themselves with colored water... City Councilman Allan Jennings, a Democrat who represents Richmond Hill, was accosted by a group of teenage girls, and his cheeks and the lapels of his black suit were stained with yellow powder."