Students participate in Holi festival and CPB Luau

Last Wednesday, Troxel Lawn was transformed into a whirlwind of color and water as students enjoyed the Holi festival and Campus Programming Board’s Luau.

“So, in collaboration with the prides and tradition committee, and the cultural committee, [we] merged both the Luau and the Holi festival together, so now we’re having a bigger event celebrating Polynesian and Indian culture,” said Alejandra Ramirez, cultural committee chair for the CPB and a political science senior. “They were originally scheduled to be two different events but because of weather conditions and [the postponement of Holi], we had to merge them together.”

Ramirez said they were also collaborating with the Indian Association of RGV, a campus organization that usually holds the Holi festival every year but partnered with CPB this time.

Although originally set to start at 5 p.m., the event’s festivities didn’t commence until a larger crowd began to gather, attracted by the large water inflatables and Hawaiian decorations that adorned the lawn.

Students were directed to sign in with their ID cards where they each received a flower clip, a traditional Hawaiian lei and a white T-shirt displaying a Holi festival logo.

Ramirez said that they wanted the T-shirt to be white so that as students who participated in the Holi festival were splattered with color, their shirts would “stain” serving as a reminder of the wonderful memories they’d make.

After receiving their goods, hot dogs and an array of Indian food provided by Kabob Guys was served to the crowd of hungry students.

“The food is what excites me the most right now, because I want to try [it] out,” biology senior Delia Covarrubias said. “But after that, I definitely want to try out all the water sports and then just see what else they have.”

While students were eating their food, a Kona truck rolled onto the lawn, offering a cup of shaved ice to attendees, a variety of flavors at their disposal.

Afterward, students gathered away from the food and water inflatables to participate in Holi, the “festival of colors.”

“The Holi festival is the throwing of powder, which is significant for the Indian culture,” Ramirez said. “It’s the celebration of the defeat of evil … and it’s kind of like their festival for the spring. … So usually what happens in Holi is that they’ll play very festive music and then they’ll have a countdown and everyone throws paint at each other, like a paint fight.” 

Veronica Lugo, a psychology freshman, said she was most excited about the Holi festival and participating in the “paint fight” since she’s never done that before.

Asked about her favorite part of the event, Shyla Peña, a mass communication senior, replied, “Actually, getting the Indian food because it feels like home. I’m from Asia, I’m from Japan, and we get a lot of Indian food over there. So, for sure getting a little taste of Asia just melted my heart, especially in this heat.”

Peña said she had fun at the event.

“I expected almost very little because coming in, they weren’t ready for the event to start yet, but it ended up being almost amazing,” she said. “Colors were everywhere, there were snow cones, there [was] Indian food. It was the best of all worlds.”