Holi Cow: Holi Takes Harvard

Yesterday afternoon, Harvard students greeted the first signs of Spring with a warm, enthusiastic, and long-overdue welcome. This welcome ranged from people playing catch in the yard, sunbathing in bikinis (questionable move for early April), and most of all throwing excessive amounts of colored chalk at each other as a part of Harvard’s Holi celebration.

Students celebrate Holi, an important Hindu tradition also called the festival of colors, this Saturday in the MAC quad. This event, hosted annually by Harvard Dharma, celebrates the coming of spring with the rang, in which students throw painted powder at each other. By Katherine M Kulik

For anyone unfamiliar with Holi, it is an Indian festival of color that welcomes Spring. Celebrated all around the world, Holi is essentially just one big color fight that, at Harvard, consists of undergrads running around throwing powdered paint at each other for almost an hour. With every color of the rainbow forming a massive cloud of color over the MAC Quad, the event was certainly a sight to see. The enthusiastic shouts of the participants were almost enough to drown out the music blasting from the Owl, which somehow found the time to throw down on a Sunday afternoon.

After attending Holi, I felt like I’d share a few pointers for anyone planning to attend next year. First and foremost, wear clothes that you don’t care about, because they will get ruined. Definitely not the time to wear your brand new shoes or your favorite shirt. Second of all, go with friends you trust. It’s far too easy to smacked in the face with a fist full of neon yellow powder, only to find that after your second shower your hair still has a lovely yellowish tint… how enticing. And finally, get there on time! Missing the opening ceremony where everyone throws color up in the air is a real bummer (not that I would know that from personal experience or anything…).

Thank you, Holi, for introducing a Spring that many of us thought would never come. Keep calm and color on!