Non-Indian students partake in annual Holi festival

Pink fingernails are the tell-tale signs. The yellows and oranges wash off easily enough, but the tiny particles of pink powder never seem to yield to soap, water, or generous scrubbing.

For the veterans of Holi, this endless washing is an annual ritual, almost as memorable as the festival itself. But for first-time participants, it was like nothing they had ever experienced before.

“We started to clean [ourselves] at the site [of the festival], but water didn’t work,” senior Tatyana Grinenko said. “I came home and took several showers, but I can still see the redness on my fingernails and elbows. It was the hardest cleaning job of my life.”

On Apr. 3, various people gathered at Stanford University to participate in the annual Holi festival hosted by Asha for Education, a Stanford student organization. Every year, many Indian students go to celebrate Holi, a Hindu festival that marks the beginning of spring and celebrates universal brotherhood. Interestingly, quite a few students with no Indian background also find pleasure in participating in the festival—namely, throwing colored powder and shooting water guns at each other. Most are encouraged to join the festivities by their Indian friends.

“My boyfriend is Indian, and he always [talks] about how fun it [is],” Grinenko said. “And it [really] was a very carefree experience.”

Holi festivals, like other ethnic events, reveal various aspects of Indian culture. In addition to booths of colored powder, the festival offers performances of traditional Indian dance such as bhangra, and sells catered Indian food like curry and samosas. Indian music blares from the speakers, accompanying groups of excited celebrants as they dance in saris and other clothes from the old country.

Senior Sam Sharps, who attended this year’s festival to fulfill a requirement for his Humanities class and spend time with his friend senior Neal Bhasin, gained a significant insight from his experience.

“Holi might have some sort of deeper meaning, but it seemed that most people celebrate it because it’s simply a fun event,” Sharps said. “[There] were people from every age group participating. [This] really shows the group aspect of Indian culture and how nobody is left out of these events.”

Once covered in powder, every participant appears the exact same color—or a mixture of colors—regardless of his or her ethnicity, metaphorical of the community-oriented nature of the festival. Young or old, dark or light, everyone is always welcome to join the Holi festivities.

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