The South Asian Student Association hosted an event in the Student Circle on April 16 to recognize Holi, a Hindu festival that ushers in spring with a celebration of colors and love.
The event, held outside in warm weather, provided white T-shirts and kites along with skin-safe, washable powder colors. Students spread out across the Student Circle, decorating themselves and their clothing.
Students lined up to receive their shirts and colors before gathering around the circle with friends and classmates, preparing to welcome the warmer weather.
The South Asian Student Association (SASA) also hosted a food truck that provided free food to students who came out to celebrate Holi and join the festivities.
Nadab Rana, a business management major and vice president of SASA, explained the significance of the colors tossed throughout the event.
“[Holi] is basically a celebration of spring and new beginnings, and you throw colors on each other for longevity and personality,” Rana said. “It’s to celebrate the colors of nature, that’s how it originally started.”
The weather added to the celebration, with temperatures on campus reaching 86 degrees and sunny skies throughout the event.
Rana said she enjoys opportunities for the club to help spread culture across campus.
“It’s very important to share your culture with others, and we are a very inclusive club,” Rana said. “We try to host as many events inspired by South Asia as we can for everyone to educate themselves.”
Rana believes cultural awareness is important on college campuses and beyond.
“[Spreading culture] is important because not having it is how you lose your ignorance, and honestly this world can use a lot less ignorance and a lot more inclusion,” Rana said.
Holi is predominantly celebrated in India, Pakistan and Nepal, but the festival has spread to other regions of Asia as well as the Caribbean and Western countries.
The holiday is also associated with the love of Hindu deities Radha and Krishna, and historically celebrated the arrival of fertile land for spring agriculture.
South Asian students at CCSU, such as social services major Anil Deonarine, said they appreciated the opportunity to celebrate their culture with fellow students.
“This is part of my culture and it’s welcoming to everyone here. [Holi] has been celebrated for thousands of years,” Deonarine said. “It’s a beautiful time and the welcoming of the spring season. [This event] is such a great way to celebrate it.”
Deonarine said he hopes students left the event with a deeper understanding of the culture behind the celebration.
“This promotes our cultural awareness, when everyone can be celebrated on this campus,” Deonarine said. “It promotes inclusivity, because in this day and age not everyone knows about cultures like this one in particular.”
Many students passing by the student center stopped to join the colorful celebration, grabbing T-shirts and tossing powders while enjoying the spring sunshine.
Criminal justice major Inovic Lenge-Mbaya said he enjoyed the warm weather the event was meant to celebrate.
“We’re just having fun out here enjoying the sun, throwing some colors,” Lenge-Mbaya said. “The sun brought me and my friends out, and we saw all the colors and the food truck.”
Lenge-Mbaya said events such as these help foster a sense of an inclusive culture on campus.
“Things like this help bring the campus together and meet the community, and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen everybody having fun on campus like this,” Lenge-Mbaya said. “It’s a good way to find friends and learn about this holiday, because I myself wasn’t aware of it until this event.”
Elementary education major Alexis Agyei said many students look forward to outdoor events each spring semester.
“A lot of students [at Central] stay in their dorms, so when it’s hot outside they look forward to events like this,” Agyei said. “It gets people to sit outside on the benches and really makes the campus feel more lively.”
Agyei hopes students will continue spending time outdoors as the weather warms and the semester comes to a close.
“Let’s keep having [these events], come out,” Agyei said. “It’s going to get hotter as the days go on, so let’s get our campus live again.”
Within the first hour of the event, colored powders covered the ground and benches around the Student Circle and the participants themselves, marking the celebration of new beginnings as warm spring weather arrived in New Britain.
