A Celebration of Holi in Uzhgorod
Rich colours and great mood: on the 21st of March a couple of hundreds of international students have gathered next to the sport centre “Burivisnik” to celebrate an Indian annual holiday of colour - Holi.
For the last five years Uzhgorod has a become a home for a great number of international students. Students from India form the largest international student community in our town. Indian youth is more than happy to share their holidays and traditions with locals. One of those holidays is Holi which is celebrated at the beginning of Spring.
A student from India Hari Krishnan tells us that “a legend has it that this day is a celebration of a defeat over evil demon so everyone is glad and happy that the Earth has become holy again.” 
A holiday of Holi is not celebrated in every State of India, though. For instance, it’s not celebrated at Southern part of India where Hari is from but up at Northern States it’s considered to be a huge holiday and is celebrated respectively. Hari has travelled a lot all over India and is quite aware of many cultural aspects of other States, therefore he has got a lot to share with us. 
“India is extremely diversified and culturally rich: in some regions differences exist not just in traditions but in language also! Usually, Holi starts with morning prayers after a family has prayed and the holiday can last the whole day and night – as long as your stamina allows”, - says Hari Krishnan.
The whole essence of Holi – joy and happiness. Joy is represented by vivid colours, that’s why everyone is throwing colourful powder paint at each other (which is called Holi as well), while dancing to Indian and in our case to Ukrainian music too. 
