Dust of color filled the air in the Library Quad as students and some community members alike chucked pounds of colored powder at each other in celebration of Holi.

Eastern’s second annual take on the festival of color Friday started with flying dust and turned into something more.

As the bags and bags of powder dissipated on the ground and on people’s faces and bodies, more and more looked to other avenues of color cover their friends with. Friends and strangers were thrown into the growing circle of mud surrounding the tubs of water. It reached the point where all that could be distinguished were muddy and colored bodies.

Manoj Vulta, a senior technology major who has been to Holi in India, said there was not enough colors so they used the mud.

“We thought there would be more color,” Vulta said.

Krishna Sumanth, a graduate technology major who has also been to Holi before, said even in India, they played with mud.

Many of the powder colors normally in a Holi festival were missing because the powder normally used hurts. He said it as good they didn’t use the normal powder used because it burns and stings, especially in the eyes. Sumanth said it was common and natural for people in Holi to end up with red eyes by the end.

When the bags of powder were gone, people just stayed to dance, party and “forget about the past,” Vulta said.

Some women even brought hula-hoops doing tricks and dances with them to the music that shook the campus. A couple of men did ticks as well swinging poi, heavy balls connected to a metal chain, multiple configurations.

Sumanth said the only real goal of Holi is to forget and just have fun with color and dancing. He said it exciting to see the more than 300 students embracing Holi so enthusiastically.

Sumanth said Eastern captured the essence of Holi. He added it encompassed the feeling of Holi, happiness.

“We celebrate because we need people to live happy and have colorful life,” Sumanth said.

Jarad Jarmon can be reached at 581-2812 or jsjarmon@eiu.edu.