Indian Student Association celebrates Holi
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Fullerton’s Acacia Park was decorated with blue, green, pink and red as the Cal State Fullerton Indian Student Association held its Holi celebration on March 19.
Holi, also known as the festival of colors, is a traditional Hindu festival that marks the start of spring. It is also symbolic of the triumph of good over evil and is a celebration of the legend of Holika and Prahalad. It is celebrated through the throwing of bright colors and bonfires, and allows for the relaxation of social castes.
“This festival is cherished a lot by people and it’s all about the equality. It’s about eradicating the inequality,” said Suvansh Saxena, a graduate civil and environmental engineering major.
This year, it fell on March 18, and it usually lasts two days. The festival, which is typically celebrated in South Asia, is considered one of the most vivid and cheerful events.
“Each day it's different with colors, with flags, with sticks,” said Ayush Bhardwaj, a first-year computer science major. “It has different aspects (of) how to play in the different regions.”
Although the association celebrated on a much smaller scale, with 44 students, Saxena said, “it means everything, heart and soul.”
Various colors are thrown in celebration, and for $5, attendees could purchase a bag of colored powder, labeled Holi Color, which consisted of dyed cornstarch.
Beginning the event, attendees either threw the powder or gently smudged powder on each others’ cheeks. There are no rules to start the celebration; it begins by simply having fun, said Sayali Kanitkar, a fourth-year biochemistry major and student representative for the club.
“You just basically go to a group of a bunch of people and just throw Holi colors at them, and they’ll just like get you back and it just starts off that way,” Kanitkar said. “We just celebrate by having fun and playing with colors.”
Abhinav Arora, a fourth-year computer science major, said there were a lot of religious aspects to the event and throwing color was just part of the celebration.
“Why do you set fire to fireworks on Fourth of July?” Arora said. “This is a celebration too”
In addition to bringing a community together, Holi stands as a reminder to seek the good in life.
“It's a victory of good,” Arora said. “And I think that's what we should aspire in our lives, to rather look for good in our life, rather than looking for negatives because there are already too much negatives. So try to focus on what we can control rather than what we can't. That's the message for Holi.”
Throughout the event, attendees cheered, wished each other a happy Holi and by the end, everyone was covered in bright colors.
“You just leave all the bad things behind you and you start fresh,” Saxena said. “It's like everything evil has gone now and we are all the same.”