All photos by Patricia Bruce
Springtime on campus brings flowers, (relatively) warm days, and tour groups. Unbeknownst to the prospective class of 2016, the afternoon of the April 14 was no ordinary one for the normally relatively composed student body of BU. The first sign might have been the people covered from head to toe in colored powder walking down Comm Ave. At BU Beach, there was a gathering of students throwing colored powder on each other while dancing to music in another language.
Holi, the Hindu Festival of Colors, is celebrated every spring in India and amongst groups of Indians all over the world, as the BU Hindu Students Council proved by organizing a very successful celebration once again. The main ritual of Holi involves throwing colored powder and water on each other, with lots of dancing and revelry included. And this year, it was a testament to BU’s cultural diversity to see Indians and students of various other nationalities celebrating together in a very enthusiastic get-together.
Bollywood music blared from several speakers as groups of students from the BU HSC handed out colors to people, while others manned food stalls. The colorful crowd danced and attacked each other with powder and paint whilst being sprayed with water from a waterspout in the center of the area. The most entertaining part of the whole affair was seeing the Indians in the crowd trying to teach everyone else how to Bhangra (an Indian dance form), and it was incredible to see them attempting it with gusto! It was a heartening show of solidarity in a most colorful way. As an Indian international student in Boston, the familiar sense of togetherness succeeded in making me feel for a moment like I was back at home!
