South Asian Students Association and Hindu Students Association members celebrate Holi at the Hofstra University Intramural Fields.

The South Asian Students Association (SASA) celebrated the festival of Holi this spring in collaboration with the Hindu Students Association (HSA). The two organizations celebrated with an afternoon of games, powdered colors and water play called “Holi Olympics.”

Holi, also known as the “festival of colors,” holds a special place in the hearts of people across India. It is a vibrant and joyful Hindu celebration that marks the arrival of spring, the triumph of good over evil and the legendary love between Radha and Krishna in Hindu mythology.

Holi is celebrated at the end of winter, on the day of the last full moon (Purnima) of the Hindu lunar calendar month. This year, celebrations started on March 13, and continued to March 14. Hofstra University’s SASA and HSA hosted the “Holi Olympics” on Friday, April 4, on the Intramural Fields.

“Holi is an incredibly popular Hindu festival that is also celebrated across South Asia by people who are Sikh, Jain [or] Muslim … and anybody else who wants to partake,” said Julie Byrne, professor and chair of the religion department, “It’s very inclusive. It’s a spring festival.”

Rachel Jacob, a freshman biology major, reminisced on Holi celebrations in her hometown of Kerala, India.

“In the past, it’s a lot of going out with my friends. Everywhere in India, there’s always Holi parties during the season,” Jacob said. “Even when you just walk down the street, you’re for sure going to get smeared with color. So, this time was really fun because it felt like everyone was celebrating in their own way, away from family, but trying to make the best of it.”

Holi’s roots can be traced back to 17th-century literature, where it celebrated agriculture, commemorating good spring harvests and fertile land. Hindus believe it is a time to enjoy spring’s abundant colors and say farewell to winter. Traditionally, it is celebrated with a combination of traditional rituals, cultural food and playful tossing of colored powders and water with families and communities.

“This is a great way to get the community together and celebrate with colors and culture,” said Vishva Patel, junior in the physician assistant studies program and secretary of HSA. “HSA is a newer club, and we wanted to do more religious holidays on campus and get involved with SASA to put together the Holi Olympics. We wanted to represent our religion, and there’s a lot of people on campus who are Hindu, but in the past, we never had a club to solidify the community. So this way, [collaborating] with SASA, we could put together Holi Olympics.” 

SASA and HSA began integrating games into their celebration last year, but this year took it to another level.

“We’re adding new games and new activities in addition to throwing colors at everybody,” said Hanna Abraham, a junior in the physician assistant studies program and secretary of SASA.

“We’re working on dodgeball, probably a water balloon game, and then maybe tug of war this time that we never did the last time, and some others,” said Josh Abraham, president of SASA, as he prepared to celebrate Holi at Hofstra for the last time as a senior.

Beyond the festivities, the event underscored the importance of cultural representation and inclusion on campus. Cornell Craig, vice president of the Office of Equity and Inclusion at Hofstra, emphasized how meaningful these events are for underrepresented communities.

“If we rely on the experience of the numerical majority, then a lot of voices [and] a lot of experiences will be left out. So, we need individuals to speak up, speak out and talk about the things that are important and valuable to them,” Craig said. “And it’s a good advertisement for future students who may be coming into the university to know that ‘not only can I get an education here, but I can also see myself reflected in the student population.’”

This representation is seen through the many clubs at Hofstra dedicated to giving minorities a space to express themselves culturally and religiously.

“I think that through the various faith-based clubs on campus that are active, they do the most amazing job of helping the community understand more about minority religions,” Byrne said. “No religion is ethnically based. It might have ethnic patterns, but no religion is ethnically or racially based. And so, Holi, like all the other religious festivals, is open to anyone who’s a member of that religion – or not a member of that religion – to participate in.”

With the majority of Hofstra’s enrolled student population being white (51.7%), events like the Holi Olympics highlight the value of awareness and support of multicultural experiences in higher education.

“We’re an institution of higher learning, and higher learning comes from all parts of the globe. Knowledge is not something that’s sequestered to one part of the globe … [W]e need to hear from all the dimensions of humanity that have ever existed,” Byrne said. “It’s also about students’ preparation for the future. All of our students are going into careers where there will be so much interaction with people of different populations, including different religions. And you want to have that cultural competence. You want to have that religious literacy to know something about what your friends, family, clients [and] coworkers might be doing in their holistic lives.”

Additionally, these events have become important expressions of unity among students of underrepresented communities. Craig reassured students about the future of events like this.

“As a university and as the Office of Equity and Inclusion, following the guidance and support of President [Susan] Poser, we are sticking to who we are. We are sticking to our values,” Craig said. “We’re going to follow the law, but until the law changes, we’re going to continue to do what we’ve been doing. What that means for students and our campus community is that there’s going to be no expectation for any shift in events, programs, activity, how we talk about things or what we discuss in classrooms. And we know that our community is diverse – of different faiths, different cultural practices [and] different racialized and gender identities – and we want to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard and [everyone] feels valued.”