Puffs of colorful powder filled the air around the Foothill Parking Lot, where UC Berkeley\u2019s Indian Student Association hosted Holi, a Hindu festival celebrating the start of spring.<\/p>\n
Known as the \u201cFestival of Colors\u201d and celebrated in early March, Holi marks the transition from winter to spring and honors the love between Hindu deities Radha and Krishna. It also commemorates the victory of good over evil and is widely celebrated across South Asia.<\/p>\n
Traditionally, Holi festivals involve singing, dancing and, most notably, the throwing of colorful powders in the air and at one another. ISA sold color packets to students before and during Holi and attendees of all backgrounds came together to celebrate.<\/p>\n
Student attendee Tweesha Chugh said Holi is the event they look forward to the most from ISA, adding that they check every March to see when the festival will be held.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably the most accessible holiday,\u201d Chugh said. \u201cYou have your friends, and it doesn’t matter who they are or where they\u2019re from, so it’s really easy to celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alongside the colorful celebration, ISA had music playing throughout the event, including traditional Bollywood and some American artists. According to ISA president Vihaan Khandelwal, Holi is one of the club\u2019s largest events, with more than 1,400 students participating.<\/p>\n
\u201cHoli is just on a different scale,\u201d Khandelwal said. \u201cWe have to get ready for set up a lot earlier, and because of the scale of the event we have to take more precautions.\u201d<\/p>\n
ISA\u2019s Holi is the largest collegiate Holi celebration on the West Coast, according to a post on ISA\u2019s Instagram page, and prides itself on sustainability. Powders from ISA are Green Event certified, using plant-based materials that reduce harmful runoff. While some attendees remarked that people bought powders that weren\u2019t sold by ISA to bring to the venue, Khandelwal mentioned that ISA would continue trying to streamline the check-in process in future years.<\/p>\n
Though Holi is a well-established event on campus, Khandelwal did mention potential plans to hire Dholi, traditional drummers who participate in most Indian celebrations.<\/p>\n
For some students who have typically celebrated Holi and other cultural holidays with family, ISA\u2019s events provide a community experience and also an opportunity to destress with peers. Along with Holi, Diwali and Garba celebrations, ISA has collaborated with the South Indian Society to host Onam celebrations and plans to work with the Bengali Student Association, the South Asian Caucus and the Pakistani Student Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cHoli (is) always the most fun and childish event \u2026 so every year I hope to bring the same joy \u2026 to the people of Berkeley, especially when there\u2019s so much happening all the time,\u201d said Khandelwal. \u201cIt\u2019s a way to de-stress, and I think that\u2019s a big motivation for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Puffs of colorful powder filled the air around the Foothill Parking Lot, where UC Berkeley\u2019s Indian Student Association…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[97266,11682,4107,39969,97258,97264,8475,97257,97256,97260,143,145,144,97265,97268,97259,97261,97267,97262,97263],"class_list":["post-211524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-bengali-student-association","tag-bollywood","tag-diwali","tag-foothill","tag-foothill-parking-lot","tag-garba","tag-hindu","tag-holi","tag-indian-student-association","tag-krishna","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-onam","tag-pakistani-student-association","tag-radha","tag-south-asia","tag-south-asian-caucus","tag-tweesha-chugh","tag-vihaan-khandelwal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}