Friday’s forecast brings 70-degree weather, making the Hindu festival of Holi fall on just the right day to ring in spring.
“We celebrate nature in every festival that we have in one or the other way,” said Ketki Gokhale, an organizer for this year’s Holi celebration at the Hindu Temple of Toledo. “We are celebrating the colorful, the new growth, the new bloom, the newness that is in the nature.”
Holi, or the Festival of Colors, is best distinguished by the throwing of colors. While the festival falls on Friday this year, the temple’s celebration will be Sunday afternoon.
WHAT: Holi
WHEN: Sunday, puja at 11 a.m.; arti at 12:30 p.m., followed by lunch; outdoor Holi celebration at 1:45 p.m.
WHERE: Hindu Temple of Toledo, 4336 King Rd., Sylvania
ADMISSION: Free; $5 per packet of colors
INFORMATION: hindutempleoftoledo.org
The temple will provide a variety of colors for guests to throw on one another until they are covered in the colored powder (typically cornstarch). Gokhale said she prioritized having organic, natural colors. In India, they might be made of turmeric, beet root, or green vegetables, she explained.
“The idea here is everybody is colored; they are colored in the same way,” Gokhale said. “So there's the concept of equality. Everyone is safe. Everyone is equal.”
Before the colorful outdoor event, the temple priest, Anant Dixit, will lead the traditional Hindu worship rituals of puja and arti. A lunch will be served featuring foods from all regions of India before a procession outside for music, dance, and play.
The celebration is open to everyone. Packets of Holi colors will be available for $5 each.
“We are proud of our culture, and we would love to share with our fellow citizens in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan,” Pandit Dixit said.
Holi has religious roots but is more a celebration of springtime blessings and togetherness.
“Above our hard work, there is one other important factor: the grace and blessings of God,” Pandit Dixit explained, noting that Holi traditionally celebrated the new crops on farms across India.
“Out of that crop, they will prepare some special dish, and that dish will be offered to God first,” the priest continued. “In other words, by the grace of God, I have received this, and I'm offering to him. Then the whole family or the community shares together.”
Gokhale, who moved to northwest Ohio from India in 2022, recalls the special foods her mother would prepare for Holi and other Hindu festivals.
“We literally used to wait for all the sweet dishes that she used to make,” she said, highlighting a sweet flatbread called puran poli. “We all used to wait for our mom to cook it for us so that we can eat it and we can go out to play colors.”
Shalika Sangras, a sophomore at the University of Toledo, said she enjoyed the rice dish biryani and popular street food samosa chaat during festival gatherings at home in California.
As president of the Indian Students Cultural Organization, Sangras is helping organize the Holi Toledo celebration for UT students to share their culture with others. It will be from 3 to 5 p.m. on April 18 — when the weather is warmer and to destress before finals.
“We do it to bring together the community, expose people to Hindu culture that might not already be aware of it, and also to help those that are international feel more at home,” Sangras said.
As students walk past the activities on Centennial Mall, they may stop to ask questions and many end up joining in on the fun.
“You can explain to them what Holi is, why we're celebrating, what we're doing throwing colors at each other,” Sangras said. “They partake in the culture and open their mindset to a different celebration. It just offers a really good cultural exchange.”
Many Indian students in the area find a home — and family — at the Hindu Temple, too.
“We come together for all the Indian festivals, all the American festivals,” Gokhale said. “We try and build this community stronger, especially for the next generation. ... We are trying to build this community where everybody can come together. This is our home now.”
She emphasized the need to teach the temple’s children about the culture, festivals, and spirituality.
“The spiritual significance of the celebration is to bring joy, happiness,” Pandit Dixit said. “In your joy, when you include more people, your joy multiplies.”
There’s also a Holi ritual of burning a fire, which symbolizes purifying the mind, body, and spirit, he said. People will get rid of negative thoughts and energies, offer thanks to God, and find newness.
“We just forget, forgive, get ready, and just have fun and just enjoy the company,” the priest said.
First Published March 13, 2025, 11:00 a.m.
