Conor Merrick | News Editor | cpm2022@jagmail.southalabama.edu
Photo by: Michael Dunn | Photographer
South students rang in the start of spring with South’s Indian Student Association (ISA) by celebrating Holi on March 26.
Students and locals gathered at South’s intramural fields, laughing and throwing colored powder made for Holi onto friends and strangers while Indian pop music played on large speakers. Food and henna tattoos were also part of the fun.
Children and students ran around with water guns and buckets trying to soak their friends after throwing powder on them. By the end of the celebration, even those who didn’t get soaked left the intramural fields much more colorful than when they arrived. Junior biomedical science major J.R. Foster was one of many students getting in on the fun.
“It’s a fantastic event for the community,” Foster said. “It’s fun, just random people coming up and throwing color.”
ISA’s treasurer and senior nursing student Nisit Sakaria also spoke to The Vanguard about the festivities.
“This is what we call Holi, it’s the festival of colors,” Sakaria explained. “It’s just a festival or joyous occasion that we get everyone together to celebrate the goodness of our culture and, you know, it’s chaotic. There’s people just throwing color on each other everywhere and just having a good time.”
Holi is a Hindu tradition associated with the start of spring but the celebration on campus wasn’t just about fun – it was also about supporting a good cause. ISA’s president, Leah Kunneth, a junior at South, told The Vanguard about the cause they’ve been donating to for the last three years.
“So our philanthropy for the past three years actually has been the Invisible Girl Project,” Kunneth said. “They’re a non-profit organization who works to end gendercide in India…girls essentially go missing because it’s almost seen as a liability to have a female child. So they work to help those girls not fall through the cracks but build a future they can be proud of.”
ISA wasn’t able to hold the event the last two years due to COVID restrictions but Kunneth says ISA plans to continue holding the event every year.
More information about the Invisible Girls Project can be found here on their website.
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