Holi, the Hindu festival of color, was celebrated a little differently this year due to weather.
At Elon University Holi is typically celebrated by throwing colored powder. However, due to the chance of rain, the colored powder outside wasn’t an option this year.
The original date of the event was April 11, but was moved to April 25 due to rain. On the second date, there was also a chance of rain, so the event was moved inside to Numen Lumen pavilion.
Inside the sacred space at Numen Lumen, participants threw flower petals in place of colored powder.
Each color of the flower petals symbolizes different aspects of life. A few examples being that red symbolizes love, yellow represents happiness, and green signifies new beginnings.
The event also included traditional Hindu activities such as face painting and creating mandalas, marigolds and rangoli, which is vibrant Indian folk art, in the McBride Gathering Space.
Another activity was henna, which was significant for Elon freshman Shokria Qasimi, who celebrates Nowruz — Persian New Year — in Afghanistan.
“This is like same thing, we do henna on our hands. We buy Henna and it's a big part of my culture” Qasimi said.
Qasimi, who drew henna on multiple attendees, also works at the Truitt Center and said it reminds her of home.
“It's a big part of my day whenever I have a shift. I came here to work because it really reminds me of my home,” Qasimi said. “Amazing things that they do at Truitt center, it’s a big part of my Elon university journey here, because they have a student to be connected to a background to their country, to their culture. So I mean, like I'm so happy to be a Elon University and just work at the Truitt center.”
Also at the event was a dance performance from Elon’s Bollywood-fusion Dance group, Surtal.
Sophomore in Surtal Santosh Gopalan said the group is his community.
“When I found Surtal, that quickly became my anchor and that grounded me to campus and I love it,” Gopalan said. “It's a fun community, and I love them so much.”