‘Pure Joy’: Dharma Holi Celebrations Usher in Spring

Harvard students and affiliates transformed the Malkin Athletic Center lawn into a colorful battleground on Sunday to celebrate Holi, the Hindu Festival of Colors marking the arrival of spring.

White-clad participants threw colored dyes and chased one another through the grass with water guns to celebrate the festival, which has been celebrated at Harvard by Dharma, Harvard’s Hindu student association, for the past two decades.

The event kicked off with energetic Hindi music. Students chanted a countdown in a circle on the lawn and then simultaneously tossed handfuls of powdered color into the air.

“We all come together, and it's like the best time, rain or shine,” Dharma member Amiya E. Tiwari ’26 said. “This organization is my family.”

“One of the most meaningful things to me is that in this festival everyone’s throwing colored water all over each other, no one can really recognize each other,” said Aneesh C. Muppidi ’25, Dharma co-president. “And so in that moment, whoever you are, whatever societal things are going on, it kind of just gets flushed out in this event of pure joy.”

For many celebrators, one unique aspect of the festivities is its physicality with and proximity to strangers.

Many attendees were not members of Dharma but came to the celebration to support friends in the organization.

David C. Brown ’25, said it was “a really great way to introduce multiple cultures together in a very fun and low stakes manner.”

“It’s really exciting, we have a lot of friends who are a big part of the community and they’re always hyping it up a lot,” Shmuel Padwa ’25 said.

Tiwari, the Dharma member, said that during the event “you don’t just play with your friends, it’s the entire community,” adding that the event is “very intersectional.”

“It’s not just Indians, it’s not just Hindus, it’s every affinity,” she added.

Although the colorful and messy nature of the event could “derail” a participant’s day, Tiwari said that turnout and publicity were “never really an issue.”

Padwa agreed.

“I think colors are very visible and beautiful,” Padwa said. “They make it pop.”

Correction: March 26, 2024

A previous version of this article misattributed a quote from Shmuel Padwa.

—Staff writer Samantha D. Wu can be reached at samantha.wu@thecrimson.com.