Holi colors collide at Indian celebration

A group of blue, green, purple, and pink dyed people masked an area of Cain Sports Complex Thursday as the India Student Association and Campus Recreation hosted Holi Fest.

Known also as the "festival of colors," Holi Fest celebrates the triumph of good over bad, according to holifestival.org. Texas A&M University-Commerce students got the opportunity participate in the celebration with colors just as they do annually in India.   

The event started off with the distribution of free t-shirts and some Indian treats.

"The food definitely didn't taste like American food," A&M-Commerce freshman Ashley Dupuis said. "I enjoyed trying something different. The Indians sure do know how to make food spicy."

Some members of the India Student Association provided brief entertainment for the event with a performance of a traditional Indian dance.

After the dance and distribution of the colors, people began running around the field throwing the colors on one another. Some students, knowing what to expect, purposefully came in solid white t-shirts and left with a much more colorful attire.

As his second year in a row attending Holi Fest, A&M-Commerce student Garrett Simon expressed that this year's was better than the last.

"I love trying the different foods from that culture," he said, "but my favorite part was the chaos of paint and how people just let themselves go crazy."

Dupuis explained that her favorite part was the after-math.

"We all looked absolutely ridiculous," she said. 'It was just funny to see everyone covered in chalk, and none of us really caring what we looked like."

Sarah Cunningham, event coordinator for the Morris Recreation Center, was pleased with the turnout of Holi Fest.  

"We had over 300 [attendees]," she said. "[That] was an increase from last year."

A threat of rain did not pose a delay for Thursday's festivities. A postponement had already been made from March 8 to March 22 due to bad weather. However, the celebration did come to a slightly early end when a downpour of rain came. Cunningham said they were grateful that the rain waited until close to the end so participants could enjoy the event for as long as they did.

 "It turned out really well," Cunningham said. "The students and faculty had a great time."

More of this story will be available in the March 29 print edition of The East Texan.