In a celebration of the beginning of spring the Maitri Indian Graduate Student Association, Ektaa South Asian Student Association and several other student organizations will be hosting the Holi festival this Saturday on Lee Field.
Holi, the traditional Indian festival of color famous for the brightly colored powders people throw on each other, officially took place in India on March 6.
Avi Aggarwal, co-president of the Hindu Student Association and a junior studying chemical engineering, said NC State’s South Asian community will be hosting a version of the event on campus to make the tradition more accessible to all students.
The festival has origins in Hinduism but has become popular among much of the South Asian community.
“Holi is a Hindu holiday that is for spring, the spring harvest festival,” said Shaunak Turaga, co-president of Hindu Student Association and a junior studying electrical engineering. “It’s a story of good defeating evil and celebrates the commitment to better ourselves with a new year’s resolution.”
Turaga said the changing of the seasons is traditionally celebrated with colors meant to represent the colors of spring.
The event will take place from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday. About 400 color packets will be handed out to attendees to throw and celebrate with.
“At its core, Holi is about good triumphing over evil and renewal and retaining purity and devotion,” Turaga said. “When you wash off the colors after Holi, you retain the colors of your devotion and your purity. Holi is based off of the ancient legend of Holika, which signifies good over evil.”
Holi also is a day of forgiveness, forgetting and disregarding social norms, according to a video created by Ektaa South Asian Student Association.
“Once the colors are washed away, they represent that the color is still within us throughout the year,” Turaga said. “It’s a celebration of life, things that are positive, and it’s a celebration of spring. It’s just a joyful time to welcome the new season. While it is a Hindu holiday, it is something that is celebrated in the South Asian community, so it’s not something that’s just celebrated in India.”
The event is open to all students to attend.
“The spirit of Holi is that you can play with anyone, with strangers, in the spirit of happiness of merriment and the joy that spring has arrived and you let go of social norms,” Aggarwal said. “Even people you don’t know, you can throw color at them and that’s OK. We will be playing Holi throughout the afternoon.”
The Hindu mythology behind the event, according to Turaga, represents a fight between good and evil.
“The story goes is that there is a king and his sister is a demon Holika,” Turaga said. “He has the commitment to the lord Vishnu. They go to kill his son because he is committed to the lord and not the king, and in the processes kill Holika. That defeat of the demoness represents the defeat of evil and welcome of the new season.”
