Booming music, thousands of bodies and colored powder filled the air around the LBJ lawn as students gathered to celebrate the Hindu celebration, Holi.

Hosted by the Hindu Student Association, Holi, which is celebrated every year, involves public dancing and singing as students throw different colored powders at each other’s faces, heads
and bodies.

 Health and society junior Krishan Sachdev, who is the financial director of HSA, said Holi is a festivity that symbolizes two significances — one spiritual and the other for the coming of a new season.

 “The religious and spiritual significance behind is that everyone is joined and unified by color,” Sachdev said. “There’s no race there’s nothing, it’s all love. The second significance is celebrating the incoming of spring. Back in India all the sources of income were farming, [and] the winter was a very, very harsh time. This was the start of the new crops and the better weather.”

 Sachdev also said this religious celebration allows people be themselves and not worry about the outside world.

 “Our goal is to get every person of race and gender to join in and celebrate just being alive and being happy and just unify as one; to bond,” Sachdev said. “Everyone looses the stress of the social life and joins in as one body.”

 More than 9,000 people attended the event this year, and the number of attendees has increased by 1,000 each year, Sachdev said. 

Business freshman Kristen Cervantessaid she enjoyed her first Holi celebration even though it involved strangers coming up to her and throwing color on her. 

 “It was a lot of fun,” Cervantes said. “We danced and we were throwing color. Everybody was so nice because people were just throwing color at other people and nobody would get mad. You would think they wouldn’t like it, but it was fun.”

Business freshman Minorie Vaidya, who is Hindu, said Holi can help people look past any social barriers between them.

 “There’s no division between people,” Vaidya said. “Everyone looks the same with color on them. Everyone is equal and it kind of promotes unity between people, which I think is really good, especially since nowadays there’s a lot of division and social issues. This is sort of a good way to bring everyone together.”