Colours filled the air outside the CFCE building during the Festival of Colours – or Holi – event.
The event was hosted on March 8 by the International Student Association and the Durham College Student Association.
This was the first Holi event since the pandemic.
Holi is celebrated around the world. It is a Hindu celebration greeting the arrival of love and spring with colours, music and dance.
The festival marks the end of winter and has become a vibrant symbol of Indian culture and the Hindu religion.
International students from India who recently joined Durham College found it a great way to interact with faculty and peers.
Many of the students say the event made them feel more at home.
“All the things are lovely about this festival. The festival of colours…we used to celebrate this with our families (a) few days back. But now, I am enjoying (it) a lot,” says Anshul Mendiratta, an International Business Management student who recently arrived Durham College.
Manmeet Kaur, also an International Business Management student, is grateful to the college for organizing the event.
“I’m not missing my home anymore. I just want to be rooted towards my country and the college is organizing everything so that’s good,” she says.
Many Durham College students joined the event as they passed by and were greeted with colour.
Students sang and danced to Bollywood songs, did the classic ‘Rail Gadi’ dance and enjoyed hot chai and samosas on a cold winter day.
The event went on for hours and the colours remained in the snow throughout the week.