The South Asian Student Association (SASA) hosted the annual Holi Color Wars event on March 30 from 2 to 4 p.m. in The Quad.
Holi is a “festival of colors” celebrating the incoming spring season each March. The colors represent blooming colors of nature that appear this time of year. Holi is predominantly celebrated in India and other regions in South Asia.
Participants wore white and threw powdered colors at each other. The turnout was large with around 100 attendees. Participants were composed of ETSU students, graduate and undergraduate, and community members.
“Holi is one of my favorite events of the year! It brings people together, and the color war is the perfect chaos everyone loves,” said SGA President Hunter Turgeon.
SASA provided shirts to the first 100 attendees. Kona Ice attended the event and donated 20% of the proceeds to SASA.
“We are a cultural organization that is not religious or political in any way. We like to celebrate the cultural festivals and events in South Asia and bring them to our Johnson City community,” said Aashi Vora, president of SASA.
SASA welcomes all students to join. The student organization currently hosts about 150 members. Leadership applications are open until April 13.
“There are a lot of international grad students,” said Vora. “I think it can be hard for them to feel connected to the region and establish what feels like home here. That has been a big motivator for me to continue this club.”
The next event will be the SASA and Global Handshakes collaboration in April. It will focus on sharing the experience from a winter break study abroad trip to India. The date will be announced soon.
For more information, visit @etsu.sasa on Instagram or email voraa1@etsu.edu.
