Updated as of 1 p.m. on April 25 to include new event location, information and updated headline.
Preparations are well underway to celebrate Holi, the festival of color, for Elon’s Truitt Center — even though it’s almost a month past the actual Hindu holiday.
The Truitt Center will host a Holi Celebration on April 25, after rescheduling from an original date of April 11, with color throwing, food, kite flying and a chance to learn something new about Hindu culture. As of April 24, the event will be moved inside to Numen Lumen Pavilion due to inclement weather and will not include color throwing.
Holi, pronounced ho-lee, is a Hindu celebration meant to mark the end of winter and arrival of spring with a festival full of color. The main event of the celebration is the experience of throwing powdered paint into the air, but University Chaplain and Dean of Multifaith Engagement Kirstin Boswell said there is so much more to the celebration than throwing color.
“Yes, throwing color is part of the celebration, but that’s not just what we’re celebrating, Holi itself is a Hindu festival,” Boswell said. “It is celebrating light over darkness, victory of good over evil, the coming of spring, new beginnings, all of those types of things, and so we want to make sure that people are aware of that.”
Outside of Elon, the Hindu holiday was celebrated March 14, almost a month before the original event date, during Elon’s spring break. Boswell said it is common for Truitt Center celebrations to take place after the actual event to try and schedule around the school’s academic calendar.
In addition to the fact that the holiday was during Spring Break, the center also wanted to wait for better weather to hold the event, Hillary Zaken, director of multifaith programming and engagement, said.
“When we’re asking folks to come out and throw color, we want to make sure it’s not going to be freezing,” Zaken said. “In addition to the consideration of keeping it close to the actual holiday date, which this year wasn’t possible, we’re also looking at the weather.”
Zaken said that when planning religious events with the Truitt Center, they always try to make sure the events are authentic to the culture and bring out people who have never heard of the event or culture.
One way Zaken said the Truitt Center tries to keep its events authentic is by bringing in partners from around campus and the community. For Holi, the Truitt Center is partnering with Kappa Phi Lambda, Elon’s Asian-interest sorority, as well as Elon’s Bollywood dance group Surtal, which will be performing at the event.
“All of our things are better when we partner with student groups and other departments,” Zaken said. “If we want to engage the campus with as part of our mission, the wisdom of the world’s religious, spiritual and ethical traditions, we can’t do that on our own.”
This is not the first time Surtal has performed at Holi, and vice president of the club sophomore Anita Bhat said she is particularly excited for this year since the group is changing its costumes.
“This semester, we’re going to try and just wear white t-shirts instead so that we can participate afterwards,” Bhat said. “I’m really excited about that.”
Member of Surtal sophomore Santosh Gopalan said he loves performing with Surtal at events such as Holi to see people sharing in Indian culture who might not be familiar with the holiday otherwise.
“It’s just having fun with people getting into Indian culture and seeing how people show up and show out,” Gopalan said. “I think Surtal is very excited to perform for Holi.”
Beyond campus partners, Zaken said the celebration will include local Indian restaurant Tazza Bistro, which will be catering appetizers for the event.
In addition to Zaken, much of the planning for events such as Holi is done by the Truitt Center’s multifaith interns, including junior Ahron Frankel.
Frankel said most of the process started with the logistics of finding a location and taking inventory of what is needed.
“I’ve been reaching out to community members, trying to find people to make speeches, taking inventory of the stuff we have from last year, stuff we need to order, finding activities to do outside of just throwing paint with things like that,” Frankel said.
In addition to throwing color, Frankel said the event will also feature kites people can fly if they do not want to get messy.
“Flying kites is a pretty big thing in Indian culture, and it’s not always necessarily related to Holi,” Frankel said. “It’s usually associated with another springtime, end of winter festival.”
In addition to the logistical side of planning, Zaken said that interns spent time talking with members of the Hindu community to make sure the holiday is well reflected.
“Part of their job is to do research about Holi, but the most important part, at least for me, is to talk to members of the Hindu campus community, right about the holiday they want to see and experience,” Zaken said. “Our interns engage in what are called multifaith connection meetings, and that’s our best way to understand the pulse of the campus and what they’re looking for in terms of religious holidays and festivals.”
According to the Spring 2025 Elon University Registrar Report, there are 28 Hindu students.
Overall, Zaken said she hopes that people come to Holi and not only have fun but learn something new.
“We succeed in the world when we learn to connect across differences, when we learn from people who are different than us,” Zaken said. “What better way to do that than through a fun festival where you understand what means something to someone, right?”
Holi will be celebrated at 4 p.m. April 25 at Speaker’s Corner, right outside the Moseley Center on Young Commons. Students are encouraged to RSVP so that there is enough for everyone via the QR codes that can be found on signs or electronic boards around campus.