With a bright sky and shining sun, students joined Saturday to celebrate the Hindu spring festival, Holi, in the recreation fields of Frederiksen Court.

The event was hosted by Iowa State’s Indian Students’ Association.

Holi takes place after the conclusion of winter, according to Hindu calendars. The holiday is celebrated in India and Nepal, but over the years, it has spread to many parts of South Asia, Europe and North America.

This year’s Holi festival in India took place on March 13, but cold weather pushed back the Iowa State celebration to April.

Mehul Shinde, president of the Indian Students’ Association, said the festival began during ancient times when one of the Hindu goddesses started it to celebrate the defeat of evil and to encourage participants of Holi to do away with all of the bad things that had occurred before the celebration.

In modern times, Holi participants get involved in a “color fight” with organic color powder.

“It’s pretty cool,” Shinde said. “In India we have big wells and we put coloring in the wells and we throw people into the wells.”

Shinde said that the color fights can be intense in India.

The Indian Students’ Association has been celebrating Holi every year at Iowa State. Shinde remembered attending Holi last year and helping coordinate the event.

“Here we try to keep it as original as possible,” Shinde said. “We have all the colors and all the water we need.”

The event has been a popular and successful one for the student organization, with about 150 to 200 attendees each year. 

As an attempt to have new things every year, the Indian Students’ Association provided free white T-shirts for everyone participating.

“I find it another opportunity to embrace the Indian culture,” Zaran Claes, junior in electrical engineering, said.

Claes invited friends of different ethnicities to participate in the festival, which many attendees believed to have been useful in exposing the Indian and Hindu cultures to those unfamiliar with it.

“It’s something I look forward to,” Claes said.

After the color fight, attendees enjoyed an Indian cuisine.