Hundreds of students dance and celebrate at Holi festival
Once the paint was set up, chaos rose and students threw colourful powder at each other, dumping red, green and orange colour bags on each others heads.
Over a hundred joyful Algonquin College students gathered in front of the E-building at 1 p.m. on March 25 to celebrate the Holi festival.
Holi, a Hindu festival of colours, is a celebration of good over evil. This festival has many meanings to it. One is about the story of how Krishna fell in love with the godess Radha but feared that she wouldn’t love him due to this blue skin, however Radha let Krishna dye her skin blue and they became a true couple.
When Leah Grimes, one of the event coordinators, was asked to describe the event.
“The event was lively and colourful,” Grimes said. “I wish we had more paint. Everyone was so excited.”
Students lined up to get their white T-shirts provided by the event. The event was coordinated by the Students’ Association.
No matter how far people were standing away from the festivities, they were getting colour on them. Students were spreading colourful powder on anybody they saw. If you had no colour, you were going to get some.
Everyone was smiling while covered in powder, dancing, filming and taking pictures.
There were paint bombs being shot by students, which would make colourful clouds.
“It was fantastic to see all this positive energy around the school,” said Tryla Thorpe, an early childhood education student.
The students got excited and the all crowded in front of the Student Commons, and “they created their dance floor,” according to Grimes.
A DJ at the event played all kinds of music to get the students dancing and singing along, and a small rave was started in front of the Student Commons.
The festival was scheduled to end at 3 p.m., but students were still dancing until around 40 minutes later.
After the event, the pavement in front of the E-building was covered in bright colours, and the grass in front of the student commons was painted red.
Students got in their cars, covered in paint, and still celebrating from their vehicles, with people throwing powder from their vehicles’ sunroofs.
