Smearing each other's faces and limbs in splashes of green, yellow, blue and red powder, about 60 people gathered on the HUB lawn Friday to celebrate Holi, a traditional Hindu holiday.
Despite the rainy weather, attendees chased and splashed one another with squirt guns and buckets of water. Dancing to music and eating food throughout the festival, participants re-created the Holi tradition with enthusiasm. The Indian Graduate Student Association (IGSA) and the Hindu Students Council sponsored the event.
Venkatesh Moktali, president of IGSA, celebrated the holiday in India when he was younger. He said the event allows Indian students who were born in America to experience the festival's dynamics.
"The whole purpose is to let people know the excitement, the rigor of Holi," Moktali (graduate-bioinformatics and genomics) said.
He also hoped to give other people a sense of the culture, he said, adding the event has many "mythological roots."
"This is just a fraction of what happens in India, and so we are trying to match it as closely as possible," he said.
Smriti Raj (graduate-workforce education and development), her face flecked with purple, watched the crowd from the steps of the gazebo on the HUB lawn. She said Holi is usually celebrated for the whole day in India. Though the event on the HUB lawn was scheduled to last only about an hour and a half, she said it still gave her the feeling of her homeland.
"It's basically about brotherhood," Raj said. "You play with colors and you forget your differences. Even if you put colors on enemies, they become friends."
Aditi Rathi, vice present of the IGSA, said the holiday is one of the major Indian spring festivals and is celebrated by Indians all over the world.
"This is a festival of colors," Rathi (graduate-electrical engineering) said. "The more colors, the better."
Rathi said the event has become popular with all religions in India and is a reason for everyone to gather and celebrate spring.
Sharanya Bhaskaran (graduate-health policy and administration) had never experienced Holi before. Standing amid clouds of colored powder, she said it was wonderful to see people from different cultures, not just Indians, celebrating the festival.
Adi Rao (sophomore-finance) also attended the event. His shirt stained with various vibrant colors, he said the event was "fantastic."
"Trying to bring your own culture to an international country is the hardest thing to do," Rao said, "but when you pull it off, the turnout is great and everyone has a blast."
