Holi: Celebrating Spring in St Andrews

If you’ve never been to a Holi celebration, you might be like me. Before attending Sanskriti, the Indian Society’s Tamasha celebration this week, all I knew about Holi was what my Scottish Catholic school had taught me about thirteen years ago.

I think I had missed a memo on start times, because although the event was advertised to start at 12:30, when we arrived slightly too promptly at 12:45, we were told to wait a bit longer until they were ready for us. After a very short and, frankly, embarrassing game of pool in the Union’s Main Bar, more people seemed to be arriving, so we ventured out again with our tickets clutched nervously in our hands. Leaving our coats and bags firmly behind the line of messy mayhem, we moved towards the neon masses and were immediately greeted by Mehak, the cheerful and already very colourful president of the Indian Society.

We must have looked very out of place, because she explained the colour-throwing (the one thing I probably could’ve picked out from the commotion around us), the sounds of the Dhol in the background (an Indian double-sided drum being played by a very talented professional), and promised us that the free shots would be making an appearance soon.

Despite the looming dark clouds, spirits were very high. Bright packets of powder were set out on the picnic tables in the field behind the Union, and people were milling around, tossing coloured clouds into the air and smearing pigments onto friends and unsuspecting strangers. We quickly picked our desired colours and joined in with the chaos. Luckily, the rain didn’t last long, and the sun broke through the clouds to cast light over the radiant troupes.

A few observations: firstly, that powder is much easier to throw than I thought it would be. I assumed that it would mostly dissipate and couldn’t hit you hard, but I was proven entirely wrong. Not that it hurts, but you feel it for sure. I definitely entered the fight with too pure a heart, trying to gently flick my colours around, and was quickly schooled on the real strategy – colour everywhere, hard and fast. Second observation (slightly more obvious): coloured powder does not taste good, and it doesn’t feel amazing up your nose or in your eyes. Somehow, though, none of that really took away from the experience of being in that crowd. When you weren’t searching for a new colour packet or blinking yellow or purple out of your vision, you would just constantly be turning and finding new people to wish “Happy Holi” to with a fistful of gulal to the face. I think as adults, we don’t allow ourselves to be messy enough. I really enjoyed the feeling of not caring what I looked like – everyone was just a walking rainbow – and my only worry was which angle I was going to be hit from next.

It was a slightly scary event to attend, not knowing anyone, because it’s obviously a tight-knit community, and people tended to stick in smaller groups. That being said, everyone was incredibly friendly and very happy to engage in a colour war with us. All in all, a fun and cheerful event that brightened up a slightly grey day - and allowed us to feel a bit like kids again!

Photo: Florence Gill