Hopkins celebrates Hindu festival of Holi

Students celebrated the Hindu festival of Holi on the Beach last Sunday. The event was organized by the Hindu Student Council (HSC) and the Association for India’s Development (AID). Free shirts were provided, along with Indian food and music and colored powder that participants could throw at each other.

The event lasted for several hours, and students and members of the community were covered in colored powder by the end.

Holi, a holiday celebrated by Hindus in India, marks the arrival of spring. The festival is also known as the “Festival of Colors” or the “Festival of Sharing Love.”

Vamsi Chunduru, a fifth year master’s student in HSC, spoke about organizing and scheduling Holi with AID.

“HSC and AID worked together to put together Holi. We had to order colors. We had to figure out scheduling the Beach and finding a good day that works,” Chunduru said. “Holi, the actual festival, is usually in March, and so we usually push it until April because the sun will be out then.”

Chunduru also discussed the event’s success and highlighted the performance by Blue Jay Bhangra, a student dance group.

“I’ve gone to Holi five years now... and I think I probably enjoyed it the most this year,” Chunduru said. “There was a really good atmosphere, and I think everyone had a really good time. There was plenty of color and there was even a student group that gave a dance performance that everyone really enjoyed.”

Sophomore Pranshu Bhardwaj of Blue Jay Bhangra said their performance was unplanned.

“It wasn’t even organized honestly. Akshay, who was one of the dancers, had said that we had danced at Holi a couple of years ago, and it was a hit. So as we were playing around, he just got the squad together and was like ‘I just want to dance you guys, have a fun time.’ Holi is all about celebration, colors, harvest, spring,” Bhardwaj said. “It is a very joyous dance, so he said he wanted to do it, and we were down for it, because why not? So it was a good time, we enjoyed it.”

Freshman Lalit Varada said the event exceeded his expectations.

“It was a bright and colorful event on a bright and colorful day,” Varada said. “The only problem was I had to take a shower right after. The organization went really well. I got what I expected, and I was expecting something good.”