Elon University students trickled in from all corners of the campus clad in old white shirts and gathered in packs around a large blue tarp in Speaker’s Corner. At first, the differences were stark: friends with friends, sisters with sisters, brothers with brothers. But once they all counted down, yelled, “Holi!,” and threw cups of paint in the air, a cloud of color covered them and the divisions began to fade fast.

In India, Holi is a Hindu festival celebrated in early March to welcome the spring season. For that reason, the Truitt Center for Spiritual and Religious Life decided it was fitting to delay its on-campus celebration to when spring began at Elon. With the fresh scent of blooming flowers and pristine blue skies, April 17 proved to be an appropriate time to welcome the end of an icy winter.

 Student's used a selfie stick to capture the moment at Holi April 17, Photo by Jane Seidel, photo editor 

When Chaplain Jan Fuller first brought Holi to Elon in 2001, food was used to attract students. The following years, dancers were used. This year, a crowd bigger than years before came to the event with neither food nor dancers as incentives. Fuller said the ever-growing crowds are indicative of how loved the festival is at Elon.

“When it’s something fun, people want to do it,” Fuller said. “No matter the religion, the culture, or anything.”

To Fuller, unity makes the festival powerful and relevant on Elon’s campus.

“In India, it’s subversive and it’s your day of freedom to cross boundaries,” she said. “We bring that to Elon too — today, we cross boundaries between faculty and staff, students, seniors and kids.”

And boundaries were crossed. The once divided crowd merged together, moving to the beat of the Bollywood music that blasted through Young Commons — there was dancing, more color-throwing and even a conga line. Very quickly, people drenched in powder paint became unrecognizable. 

Sophomore Iliana Brodsky an Interfaith intern at the Truitt Center who organized the event, said the festivities are important even though Hindus are a minority on campus.

 Students participate in the 2015 Holi Festival celebration. Photo by Jane Seidel, photo editor

“It gets students conscious about cultures and festivals they’ve never heard of,” she said. “Everybody loves color, spring and the idea of renewal.”

Brodsky said though she had never taken part in Holi, she did ample research on the event — as she hopes participants do, too.

“I spent a lot of time Googling it and the preemptive rituals involved,” Brodsky said. “It was kind of crazy to try to capture all of it. I’ve been able to learn a lot and have been able to educate my friends. So it just took a lot of personal research.”

Junior Claire Lockard came to the event to relive memories of her Winter Term trip to India.

“It just brought back so many memories of India,” Lockard said. “Anytime there’s an event that reminds us of our time there, we want to experience it.”

Some students were surprised they did not see more physical or social media promotion of the event, but Adam Constantine, Elon’s social media manager, thought it was not necessary to excessively promote the event.

“Word of mouth is such a powerful thing,” he said. “It gets people excited and is huge for these type of things.”

He believes going to cultural events such as Holi fosters a sense of community while celebrating global engagement.

“You want to look back at your Elon experience and know you took part at these events,” he said. “The paint is temporary, but the memories last forever.”

Through Elon's GoPro drone, phones attached to selfie sticks and photographers surrounding the tarp, the event was captured in various ways, adding a splash of color to Elon's social media platforms.

Freshman Giulietta Brunetti said she was excited to see many people in attendance and  to experience a foreign cultural tradition.

“I want to study abroad a lot,” she said. “So it’s important to be aware and open to different cultural events.”

Students confirmed this excitement and memory-building.

“Throwing the paint is pretty cool,” Hiles said. “Also, it has a cultural meaning and is not just a random thing.”

Despite mixed reviews on promotion from some students, the excitement and community present on the tarp could not be denied.

Situated in the middle of Speaker’s Corner, the tarp was filled with happy Elon students dancing around and throwing red, orange, green, yellow, purple and other colored paint at each other.

Around 4:30 p.m., the tarp was cleared and all that remained was a delicate layer of different colored paint mixed in a single, earthy hue.

Just a few minutes later, the tarp was folded, leaving the grass and flattened by the students’ expressive and impassioned dancing.