Students Celebrate Holi at HDS

March 28, 2019
Students Celebrate Holi at HDS
Students celebrate Holi on the HDS campus. Photo: Michael Naughton, HDS

Bright clouds of orange, yellow, purple, and blue floated through the HDS Campus Green on the afternoon of March 27 as students tossed colored powder at one another as part of an observance of Holi, the spring Hindu festival.

The celebration marks the arrival of spring, but is also dedicated to Vishnu in some parts of India and to Kama, the God of Pleasure, in other parts of India.

The HDS Womxn of Color Collective hosted the event to highlight religious diversity and community-based religious festivals of which HDS students practice, belong, and cherish. The celebration began the evening of March 26 with an educational component and storytelling by a fire.

“Many of our religious traditions are not present on campus … so we wanted to create something that would allow us to celebrate ourselves without the burden of being forced to explain the validity of our faith traditions,” said event organizer Syona Puliady, MTS candidate.

Holi took place March 20-21 during spring recess.