As the days get warmer and the signs of spring are officially in the air, the South Asian Student Association (SASA) of Westford Academy begins preparations for the Indian festival, Holi.
From 5 to 6:30pm on Friday, May 3, SASA will be hosting their Holi celebration in the senior parking lot, including music, drinks, colors, and more. Tickets cost five dollars and cash payments can be submitted to any of the SASA cabinet members or Rashmi Kumar in room 261, or venmo @WASASA. All proceeds from the event will be going towards an organization that helps students in india receive quality education.
After spending time planning and researching, senior founding member and co-secretary Mysha Khan decided that all of the proceeds SASA collects from this event will be donated to ‘Big Help‘, an organization that assists underprivileged children in India by providing the education that every child deserves.
“During round tables, we’ve had many conversations about what it’s like being a South Asian student at WA.” Khan said. “[…] But in the midst of all that, it’s easy to forget that we are the lucky ones with access to an amazing education system. And with WA SASA literally being a ‘Student Association,’ it feels fitting to give back to South Asian students overall.”
Holi is described as a holiday marking the beginning of spring and representing the triumph of good over evil, where family and friends all have the chance to come together, throwing colored powders in celebration.
“It’s kind of to show the colors of spring blooming and all the flowers coming to life, showing that everything is growing. Everyone wears white at the start, and as the colors start flying everyone changes color. That’s another fun aspect of the colors,” the club’s co-treasurer sophomore Srisai Vuppuluri said.
The date of Holi changes every year, depending on the lunar calendar. This year the holiday was technically on Monday, March 25, but SASA decided to schedule their event a little bit later.
“We deliberately waited for the weather to warm up a little bit before we could have a festival of colors and a festival of spring,” SASA advisor Mrs. Rashmi Kumar said.
Although this will be SASA’s first year hosting Holi, they hope that it will be a success and a potentially annual event.
“Based on the interest that we had for Darba in the fall, I know that there’s been a lot of talk and I think people are looking forward to it,” Kumar said.
SASA has put a lot of thought and care into the preparations for this event such as acquiring the right paperwork and permits to be allowed to use the senior parking lot, and organizing all the materials they will need for the color throwing. Attending students and staff can expect an eventful afternoon filled with colors, dancing, and music in the senior parking lot.
“For the first portion [of the afternoon] people will be throwing colors on each other. They’ll receive cups of different colored powers that they can throw on each other and that will happen for the majority of the event. Then for the rest of the time, it’s going to be open dancing with music, it’s just going to be a lively event,” senior co-treasurer Srini Sriram said.
Thanks to their experience running their widely popular event, Darba, organizing Holi has been a very smooth process for SASA.
“I think that from our experience and just hosting events in general, this should be fairly successful with how we implement it,” Sriram said.
Although Holi is a holiday typically celebrated in various parts of India, SASA wants to make sure that people from all backgrounds feel welcome and excited to come.
“I feel like Holi in general is not something that is too rooted in culture,” Sriram said. “The activity is pretty simple, you’re just running around and throwing colors on each other, which is just fun in general. I feel like the event itself promotes everyone to just have fun while doing it. You don’t have to be of any descent to have fun [at Holi].”
Social media has also been a big help to SASA in spreading the word about their Holi event.
“We’ve been posting about it through Instagram and on our Google Classroom and we have a fun little video that came out [on the morning announcements]. But our best bet is posting on social media and making it engaging, showing what Holi is so that people who may not know also become interested in coming,” co-social media manager Iesha Patel said.
Not only will Holi be a fun celebration for WA, but it will also help further represent the South Asian traditions that sometimes can be overlooked in the school curriculum.
“I feel like whatever holidays that are huge in [students] lives and their population should be represented within our school community, which is part of the reason why SASA was founded in the first place, to sort of promote different South Asian holidays and traditions that normally aren’t really represented in the school curriculum,” Sriram said. “I know personally, for a lot of South Asians, Holi is a very prominent event that everyone celebrates, and I feel like sharing that with others and allowing others to have fun along with us within our school environment makes it very fun.”
