2025 Holi Celebration

By: Michelle Wu '27

On Saturday, March 22nd, just days after school had resumed following Spring Break, Cate celebrated Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, love, equality, and spring. Holi holds significant cultural importance in India. Not only does it mark the beginning of spring, but it is also a tradition where one forgives, forgets, resets, and bids farewell to the impurity or discontent of their past. Rooted in Hindu mythology, Holi celebrates the victory of good over evil, as seen in stories of the gods Vishnu, Narasimha, and Hiranyakashipu, as well as the eternal love between the gods Radha and Krishna. 

In the spirit of community and in honor of Holi, Cate students and faculty gathered to spend the evening together. Around 7:30 PM, students arrived in white T-shirts and lined up shoulder-to-shoulder across the Kirby Quad, where they were welcomed with chai and cookies. The celebration opened with a few dances led by Aakansha Maheshwari, a Bollywood dancer and founder of the Bollypop dance program in Los Angeles. Grooving along to popular Indian songs, Aakansha taught many iconic Bollywood dance moves, including the shimmy, the Pichkari pump, a dance move that imitates water or color spraying with exaggerated arm movement, and high jumps and claps. She invited groups of six or seven to the front of the dance floor and taught each group the dance moves. Reflecting on her center-floor experience, Naomi Chen ‘26 shared, “I really wanted to go dance, so it was pretty cool.” Alongside these moves, Aakansha also left time for freestyle dances in the form of a mini-competition between the two sides of the field. 

After around 30 minutes of dancing, the color war began. Students picked up little paper cups with colored powder and hunkered down on the grass. On Aakansha’s count of three, everyone leaped to their feet and flung the powder out of the cup. Puffs of blue, red, purple, pink, orange, yellow, and teal shot up and flurried through the air, with swirls of different colors soon blending as some flocked to the picnic table for more cups of powder. Known and loved for its vibrant chaos, the celebration bubbled over with excitement upon the playful dumping and tossing of powder between participants. At roughly 8:30, the festivity subtly concluded when all the powder ran out. Before scurrying off to their dorms, the students threw away the plastic packaging and paper cups littering the lawn.

Though the student body agrees that it was undeniably fun, the color war also brought about some overwhelming moments. Ramya Bangaru ‘26, who has celebrated Holi annually since childhood, notes that their family tradition closely parallels Cate’s. She explains, “We usually celebrate in the afternoon when there’s light outside. Our celebration is also a lot gentler than pouring packet after packet of color on people.” Indeed, the color war was intense, and many left the event with color-blanketed white T-shirts. Sofia Wang ‘28 recalls, “Someone dumped a handful of powder into my mouth, and I started coughing out blue powder.” Echoing this experience, Ramya suggests adopting a more toned-down and gentle approach to the color war in the future. 

Similar to Ramya’s recount of her childhood memories, Ms. Avani Shah shared that color war also plays a central role in her family tradition. In addition to that, she explained that, like Cate’s celebration, Holi is a time when her family and community come together, enjoy delicious food, and groove to music. Ms. Shah, Mr. John Knecht, and Ms. Kadine Peterson worked together diligently behind the scenes to bring Cate’s Holi celebration to life. Looking ahead to next year, Ms. Shah shared that she is excited to invite her friend Aakansha Maheshwari again and hopes to keep this tradition alive for many years to come.