The 5th grader’s last Holi celebration in PYP was unforgettable, filled with friendly competition, vibrant colors, and cherished memories. In PYP, the school organizes Holi using marigold petals that shine in the sunlight, ensuring that color and water don’t harm the children. However, in 5th grade, the students used color powders instead.
With petals, the 3-4s play in the field surrounding our school, they have a larger group of around 72 kids, but once we enter the 5th Grade we use the basketball court instead for it is easier to clean up, and we have a small amount of people playing. As soon as the celebration began, our faces were already adorned with color, and within the first five minutes, the entire color supply was depleted! Students begged Ms. Renu for more color from her packet, but that ran out quickly too. We resorted to scraping color and petals off the floor and throwing them at each other. Due to our tight-knit community, friendly competition arose among us, leading to playful “wars” inside friend groups, and a newfound camaraderie within the grade. We only had ½ an hour to play, but we made sure that we would never forget it. By the time school ended, we were covered in color, leaving a literal mark on us of the memories we made. To the surprise of our siblings and parents, we didn’t wash off the color until we got home, and some of us even put it on them! Overall, this Holi was an unforgettable experience and a cherished memory for us as we prepare to enter MYP.
For the MYP, Holi took on a different yet equally exciting form. The celebrations included color and water, making the experience even more exciting. The event took place on the lawn and saw moments of friends pouring buckets of water, smearing each other’s face with colour and chasing one another with water guns.Unlike PYP, where celebrations were limited to individual grades, the MYP and DP students were allowed to interact and play with students from the entire MYP and DP. This allowed the celebration to be extra special, as we got to bond with students in other grades and interact with some we never do.
As soon as the celebration started, handfuls of bright pinks, blues, and yellows filled the air, coating us in a rainbow of colors. Water buckets and hoses turned the field into a giant playground, where no one was spared from the chaos. It was impossible to stay dry, as friends and even teachers joined in, ensuring everyone was drenched from head to toe. The lack of pichkaris led to more innovative methods, with students using cones, buckets, and other objects to store water before throwing it at friends. Students got so creative as to throw mud at each other after the water and colour was over, trying to continue the celebrations and playing with their friends. Afterwards, students sat together while eating samosas and cold golas, trying to dry off in the sun. Holi is always a celebration filled with laughter and fostering school spirit, but this year was a truly memorable and well-organized experience.