On Monday, March 25, Darlington School celebrated “Holi,” the festival of colors. The Darlington Asian Union organized the entire event. The Darlington Holi festival is held every year by the DAU to honor the culture and heritage of our student body.
Holi is usually celebrated by spraying and throwing colors as well as dancing around special Holi bonfires. The event was held on the chapel lawn. Bags of pigment were handed out to each student.
“There were a lot of people at the lawn spraying colors, it was a great environment,” freshman Paul Lyu said. “The paint took about a week to wash off since it went through my shirt, I feel like they should really use less sticky pigment if they do this again.”
Holi is usually celebrated around late February or March. It originated in Nepal and India. Recently, it has spread worldwide and is now celebrated in other countries. The festival was connected with various tales from Hindu mythology. One famous tale details the legend of the Demon King Hiranyakashipu and his son, Prahlad. It symbolizes the victory of good over evil. Another popular origin for the festival is the love story of Radha and Krishna.
“The colors that people use in Holi all mean different things; for example, red is love and fertility, and green means spring and new beginnings,” junior Javin Pandya said.” Holi is a significant festival in Indian culture so I’m very glad that the school is doing this. While the school festival might not have been exactly traditionally accurate, I feel like the message is there that they wanted to spread the culture of different international students across the school.”
The DAU planned the Holi festival to spread cultural awareness about the culture and traditions of India. Students believe that the DAU succeeded in delivering the message.
“I thought it was a good representation of Holi and the DAU did a pretty nice job,” freshman Jerry Zhang said.