Over 100 Elon students and members of the community wore white and threw colored powder in the air Friday to celebrate Holi, the Hindu Festival of Color.
Holi is typically observed in early March after the last full moon of the Hindu lunisolar calendar month. This year, Holi fell on March 2, but Elon celebrates it in April when the weather is warmer.
Freshman Eleanor Irion went to the event after reading one of the several posters on campus and said, “It was absolutely amazing, and I have never experienced anything like it.”
“I will definitely be back next year,” Irion said. “I am a first year, so I plan to go every year before I graduate.”
While the event was fun for students and other members of the Elon community, it has a much deeper meaning. The colored powders are believed to signify energy, life and joy.
According to Holi tradition, whenever one splashes the colors on somebody, they are promising to always be truthful, to maintain a lifelong brotherhood and to shower them with all possible love.
After the paint-throwing festivities, Elon Hillel and the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life co-sponsored an Indian Shabbat in the Numen Lumen Pavilion.