Holi

So today was Holi.

Holi is an Indian festival where people run around and throw colored powder at each other. Sometimes, they use paint, water balloons, and water guns as well. It’s a holiday they celebrate with great pomp and circumstance in India, but here, no one can imagine a holiday dedicated to behaving as though one is three years old.

Except here at Tulane, with the Indian Association of Tulane University. Today we had Holi, and it was the most fun I’ve had in awhile. We went to the park, found a spot right by St. Charles, and then proceeded to pelt each other with colors and paint. Hopefully, the paint was non toxic, because we ended up getting it in our hair, faces, mouths, and contacts. And then we did the most Indian thing we could do– we washed up in the fountain! I’m sure the water was water we wouldnt normally want anywhere near us, let alone on our limbs and faces, but then again, if you’re Indian, you’re also resourceful. So we pretty much bathed in our own river Ganges . . . the probably still Katrina-contaminated water in the Audobon fountain!

And of course, people stared. They just thought we were a bunch of teenage idiots, though we were celebrating an ancient cultural tradition. Holi celebrates the new spring season with bright colors and fun in the sun. It is a national holiday in India, and because it falls in March, I’ve never been to a Holi celebration (that I remember). It’s an impractical holiday, which is why as an American raised kid, I’ve never celebrated it before.

So here at Tulane University, I got to know a little more about my heritage, and therefore a little more about me.

Oh the things you will find in New Orleans!!!