Students had the chance to play with colored powder at the Holi festival held by the Southeast Asian Student Association (SASA). The event took place on Saturday, April 27 at Rock Quarry Park and was open to the general public to participate in the Hindu tradition.
Also known as the Festival of Colors, this holiday can be traced to Hindu scriptures and aims to celebrate the upcoming spring season.
Karishma Goswami, a freshman in SASA at MU, said that despite cold weather infringing on the typical occurrence of the tradition, her organization moved it up to keep the exciting tradition alive.
“We came out because it’s part of our organization on campus, SASA, and Holi essentially means the festival of colors and the festival of love,” Goswami said. “And typically in India, they celebrate it in March, but since the weather has been pretty cold here we did it now instead. It’s basically just spreading love to your friends and family through color.”
Similarly, Ruchita Patel, an MU freshman in SASA, said the event consisted of various traditions that typically occur at the festival.
“Holi is like the welcoming of spring where we throw colored powder on each other all over the place, and there’s music and Indian food all to celebrate the new season,” Ruchita Patel said.
Devansi Patel, a freshman at MU in SASA, felt the festival was a success due to a large turnout and positive responses.
“The event went really well,” Devansi Patel said. “There’s a lot of people that showed up, and everyone’s having fun so overall it ran smoothly.”
Ruchita Patel said she came out to Holi since she had not participated in the event in over 10 years as she had never had the opportunity. She said the last time she had attended the event was in India. Ruchita Patel felt fulfilled being able to participate in the festival once again.
Mahi Patel, a freshman at MU in SASA, felt the festival was enjoyable and a great way to bring the community together.
“Students from diverse cultures came together and it was a great turnout and a super fun way to kick off spring,” Mahi Patel said.
Goswami noted that her favorite part of the event was being able to throw color and spray friends with water. She said the festival ran short of color due to a larger turnout than SASA anticipated.
Ruchita Patel also said that her role in the event was to manage the music and she aimed to contribute diverse playlists.
“I was in charge of the music so I came up with the playlists that incorporated Indian music and other cultures as well.”
The Holi festival is a popular Hindu festival celebrated primarily in India and Nepal, but students in SASA brought the MU community together to understand and enjoy the traditional Festival of Colors.
_Edited by Janae McKenzie | jmckenzie@themaneater.com_