Students enjoy Holi Moli despite not knowing its origins

Even before students step foot on UNC’s campus, they’re anticipating one of the most popular events of the school year: Holi Moli.

“I heard about it when I came and toured here,” freshman Megan Fleming said. “They used it as one of the events to get students to come here.”

Fleming, like thousands of other students, will attend the celebration Friday on Hooker Fields in spite of not knowing the cultural origins of the event.

“I’m doing it because everyone talks about it,” Fleming said. “I think it’s good to experience different religions and cultures and what they like to celebrate.”

There are many students at UNC who know first-hand, or through stories, the origins of Holi.

Sophomore Pooja Iyer has ancestral ties to the cultural celebration. Her parents migrated from India in the 1990s and often tell her stories of how Holi was celebrated when they were kids. Iyer said one of the main differences between Holi celebrations in India and at UNC is the length of the celebration.

“When my mom was growing up in Bombay, you would all wear white and it would be an all-day affair,” Iyer said. “By the end of the day you’re literally covered in head to toe with powder.”

Iyer said Holi’s religious traditions entail wearing white for a fresh start and throwing color to signify good overcoming evil.

Iyer notes that although the concept of the event has remained the same, the meaning has changed over time and in different locations.

“Even in India, it has become this cultural phenomenon where it’s less religious and more of a fun festival that happens every year,” Iyer said. “It’s become less religious and more for the purpose of having a fun holiday every year.”

Like the celebration of Holi itself, UNC’s Holi Moli celebration has evolved over time.

UNC 2013 graduate Jagir Patel, former co-director of Holi Moli and former co-president of the Campus Y from 2012 to 2013, helped run the Holi Moli celebrations at UNC in his four years as a student.

When the event was first celebrated campus wide, it was presented as “Holi Cow.” Patel said the organizing group changed the name to Holi Moli in 2010 and designed the event as it exists today.

Patel helped the event grow from a small celebration designed only for Hindu Yuva members — a UNC group celebrating Hinduism — in 2009 to an event for over 3,000 people by 2013.

Patel said he attributes the exponential growth of Holi Moli to the collaboration of Hindu Yuva, Sangam, Campus Y and student government.

“What makes it much more multicultural is having the Y and Sangam and student government and members who aren’t Hindu come on board just through the notion that Holi is a celebration of spring and a celebration of Hindu tradition,” Patel said. “It marks a triumph of good over evil, and those are things that I think a lot of people can get on board with regardless of your faith.”

In addition, UNC’s Holi Moli celebration is always celebrated in the late spring, weeks after Holi is traditionally celebrated. Aaratthi Thushyanthan, senior and current co-director of Holi Moli, said the event is scheduled to accommodate for weather, turnout and word-of-mouth discussion created by the students.

Thushyanthan said the Holi Moli team is committed to promoting the significance of the event.

“Over the past three or four years we’ve had this struggle where people just call it Holi Moli and think all it is essentially is throwing powder, but this year we’re trying to work toward the cultural aspect of the event by having cultural events all throughout this week,” Thushyanthan said.

Thushyanthan said UNC’s celebration will continue to create comprehension through donating proceeds to the Mahatma Gandhi Fellowship through Sangam, a scholarship that sends two to three students abroad to a South Asian country, and Campus Y student projects.

Although students aren’t necessarily aware of the cultural significance of the event before attending Holi Moli, Thushyanthan and Patel say the event is intended to create unity and understanding among all populations represented on UNC’s campus.

“UNC in general has a big pillar of acceptance and acceptance of culture, and I really think Holi really encompasses that environment,” Thushyanthan said.

“So many different students come out to this event, and they get to enjoy one aspect of a South Asian culture that they probably wouldn’t know about or celebrate on their own.”

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