In the back field by the portables on April 13 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., the Bollywood Dance Club held an event resembling that of Holi called the Color Festival. Holi, also known as the “festival of colors” is an Indian spring festival celebrated all across the Indian subcontinent as well as in countries with large Indian subcontinent populations. It signifies the victory of good over evil, the arrival of spring and end of winter. Sophomore Rathna Ramesh attended the event and recounts the color festival as being comparable to Holi. “Imagine vibrant colors swirling around in the wind, upbeat music, laughter and smiles on a sunny Friday afternoon. That was the color festival. During the event, everyone threw colored powder at one another, turning the sky into a canvas in the process,” Ramesh said.
Junior Laila Ghorab summarizes the activities at the event. “We had each bought a ticket for $5, which covered the price of one slice of pizza and a bag of colored powder. Then, we commenced by ruthlessly and indiscriminately chucking the powder at each other. We ended up incorporating some fun games with it, like tag. We all had a bag of a colored powder of our choice, and mercilessly threw color at each other until we were walking, talking rainbows. By the end of it, our colors matched our moods. We were cheerful and bright,” Ghorab said.
Sophomore Arnav Patra, another participant, describes the purpose of his attendance and the festival. “The festival is like a party with food and music, inspired by the Indian spring celebration of Holi. I went to the event because I had always enjoyed this festival growing up as an Indian American and this was an opportunity to share it with my friends from school. The purpose was to raise awareness of Indian culture at Wootton while supporting a great cause, the Manna Food Center, and to celebrate a good time with friends and share our culture while benefiting our local community and those in need. This event impacts the Wootton community by showing the generosity of the community and by showing our diversity,” Patra said.
Juniors Somya Jain and Esha Mittal were the main organizers of the annual color festival. Jain describes her responsibilities and the organization. “I helped Esha with the organization. I designed the flyers and I sold tickets. I was mostly responsible for spreading the word. I made fliers, and I told everyone I knew about it and told them to tell their friends,” Jain said.
Mittal explains the organization of this year’s color festival and why people should attend the next one. “It was easier to hold it this year because everything was basically the same as last year: order color, plan the event and spread the word. Since it’s not exactly something many of us have done before it’s pretty interesting. People should attend next year because it’s actually fun throwing color at your friends and the way your shirt and hair look after everything is done is pretty cool,” Mittal said.
Nitya Kumar
Commons Editor
