By Sam Zimmer
Elm Staff Writer
Holi is a Hindu festival that celebrates the arrival of spring with joyful games and colors. On March 28, the Asian Culture Club brought the festivities to Washington College, inviting students to food, music, and games.
Especially celebrated in India and Nepal, Holi is usually observed during March. According to Smithsonian Magazine, Holi is also representative of the victory of good over evil. The act of flinging colorful powders reenacts games between the Hindu gods Krishna and Radha.
ACC’s Holi celebration started at 1 pm in the Goose Nest, were the ACC welcomed everyone with authentic Indian music and food. The self-serving buffet consisted of chicken and paneer biryani, samosas and pakoras, provided by the local restaurant, Masala Time.
The main celebration was held outside with games: the Hodson Green was turned into a playing field, where attendees threw vibrant colors at each other and battled with squirt guns. Aware that attendees’ wardrobes would suffer from the colored powder, the ACC provided free white t-shirts.
After the first Holi celebration at WC last year was successful, the ACC hopes that it will now be an annual event. ACC president junior Jessica Kelso expressed that the club is looking to bring a wider variety of Asian traditions to the campus.
“East Asian culture is overrepresented in comparison to Southeast Asian and Central Asian culture. A big goal of mine is to highlight the diversity of Asia as a whole, and Holi is such a large community festival that I wanted to celebrate on campus,” Kelso said.
Kelso also stressed that the event was spearheaded by the ACC’s vice president sophomore Sugam Chaudhary and treasurer freshman Aditya Mallya. Chaudhary is from Nepal and Mallya is from India; their cultural background allowed them to make the event more authentic and personally meaningful.
“It feels incredible to see our culture represented on campus. Many of us are far from home, and events like these help us stay connected to our roots. WAC has always been a welcoming and diverse community,” Mallya said.
While the event had reportedly less attendance than last year, there were still numerous students who spontaneously joined the games on the Hodson Green. Junior Zack Gottemoller was just passing by when some of his friends at the event invited him to join the fun.
“I had a blast running around with all the different colors. It’s very important to participate in different cultural celebrations, because they bring students closer together. Your time in college should be spent trying new things,” Gottemoller said.
Gottemoller stated that he will definitely attend next year’s Holi celebration and that other students should try it as well. The ACC said they were satisfied with the event turnout, stressing the cultural significance and impact on the campus community.
“Although attendance was a little lower compared to last year, success for our club has never been just about numbers. It is about the experience people have when they walk through the door. This year, we had many new faces,” Chaudhary said.
The ACC’s Holi festival gives Washington College students a chance to learn more about the culture of their international peers. May it be through music, food, or games, the collective memories created bring the campus closer together.
Photo Caption: Students celebrated Holi by throwing colored powder at each other on the Hodson Green.
Photo by Sam Zimmer