Happy Holi: Navigating Elon’s Holi Celebration Despite Pandemic
On Friday, April 16, staff members for the Truitt Center for Religious Life and other members of the Elon community gathered on the lawn in front of the Truitt Center for a belated Holi celebration. Holi, an event rooted in Hinduism, was March 28-29 of this year and celebrates the arrival of spring.
Also known as the “Festival of Colors,” Elon students know Holi as an event involving throwing colorful powder at their peers.
“When I think of Holi, I think of joy! Jan Fuller came up with the idea to create this event in 2012 during the first year she and I worked at the Truitt Center. We gathered a group of Hindu students and talked about ways to celebrate and… I had many moments of doubt during the planning process, but we pulled it off! On Elon’s campus, Holi is now a beloved tradition and a super fun and exciting way to welcome spring while educating the Elon community about Hinduism,” says Jan Register, Administrative Assistant for the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual life.
Due to campus regulations and physical distancing practices, Holi could not look like how it has in the past. Truitt Center Interfaith Interns Emerson Wells (aka the writer of this piece) and Brittney Hope were coordinators for planning this year’s event.
This was likely the first Elon Holi celebration for many Elon students. Second year students are experiencing their first spring on campus, and therefore first on-campus Holi celebration, because Elon transitioned to online classes last year due to the coronavirus. This made planning the event difficult, as both coordinators and the event supervisor did not have experience celebrating Holi at Elon. To make it work, everyone involved had to think outside of the box and work with staff and alumni who worked with event planning previously.
“I’d say the most tricky part to navigating [this event] was the intention to make the event informative rather than ‘performative,’” says Allison Pelyhes, Multifaith Coordinator for the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life. “A typical Holi celebration that Elon has held in the past would look more like the Hindu tradition. The trick was to find a way to embody the spirit of ‘good overcoming evil’ and the meaning of the colors in a more low-key way.”
Truitt Center staff members and students worked at tables dedicated to specific colors for Elon community members to learn more about the symbolism behind colors while creating their mask at the Elon Holi celebration. Photo by Jan Register.
Ultimately, Holi was celebrated with an in-person mask tie-dying event accompanied with a virtual component.
A statement from the Truitt Center Holi virtual event space reads: “We couldn’t have a ‘normal’ Elon Holi celebration due to the pandemic, so we organized this year’s event to be physically distanced and as authentic as possible. This celebration includes an online educational component where individuals can learn about the Holi origin story, the symbolic nature and meanings behind the colored powder used in celebration, and the experiences of Elon faculty and alum. After working with EMPRESS, Elon’s Pan-Asian Women’s Club, we came up with the idea of a mask “tie-dying” event, using the Holi gulal powders to color masks. With Holi celebrating the triumph of good over evil, we’d like to think that this event, by navigating celebration and community during a pandemic that has caused so much harm, symbolizes that.”
When planning this event, student coordinators struggled with balancing wanting to have Hindu students involved in the planning process of the celebration, while also recognizing the busy culture of Elon and that many of these students were already in the planning process for events as part of AAPI Heritage Month. It was difficult to want to create an authentic space for Hindu members of the Elon community to celebrate while also educating those not familiar with the celebration.
Because of this in part, Elon alum Abhinav Nitesh and faculty member Dr. Srikant Vallabhajosula shared how they celebrate Holi and the importance of the festival to their communities as part of the online portion of the event. Nitesh was a former Interfaith Intern at Elon and had a large role in assisting with Holi during his time at Elon.
“Having our alumni show up and folks share about their experience of Holi growing up was extra special,” says Pelyhes, as this virtual space had not been created in the past.
As part of the in-person event, students had the opportunity to learn more about the meaning behind specific colors while creating their mask, making the event informative and intentional.
The Edge encourages multifaith and multicultural learning, especially when in unprecedented situations. To learn more about Holi, visit the Truitt Center Holi virtual event space.
Cover image designed by Emerson Wells.