As the month of April commences, the Eastern community begins to celebrate Asian Heritage Month.

Nationally, the commemoration of Asian heritage takes place in May, but Eastern traditionally schedules a host of events in April so the campus has the chance to celebrate before school lets out for the summer.

The Asian Heritage Month committee has organized this time of cultural appreciation at Eastern for the past 10 years.

This April is just as good of a time as any to learn about and appreciate what the diverse cultures of Asia have to offer.

In an article in Tuesday’s edition of The Daily Eastern News, Asian Heritage Month chair Krishna Thomas said the month has morphed into a celebration of diversity on campus over the past few years.

Thomas said in the article that Eastern’s population includes 1 percent Asian students, and Asian Heritage Month is another way to get students engaged and connected.

“It is important for our campus to know. I don’t want it to seem like cultural tourism,” she said in the article. “People need to understand what goes on in different cultures and in different countries.”

With Asian students making up such a small percentage of Eastern’s population, it can be easy for the general student population to overlook the significance of the unique perspectives that come from Asian cultures.

People should not only take the time to participate in these events if they can, but they should also seek to participate in a meaningful way.

Treating Asian heritage as “cultural tourism” is problematic in that it provides only trivial experience with certain aspects of Asian culture.

For instance, the Holi celebration is coming up this weekend, which typically draws a large crowd of students coming to have fun and cover one another in colored powder.

While students can come to this event as a way to relax and enjoy themselves toward the end of the semester, they should also mingle with international students and make a point to get their perspectives.

Holi is more than just making rainbow T-shirts on a college campus; it is an ancient tradition that has both cultural and religious significance. It is a celebration of spring and friendship.

There are plenty of events happening on campus from now until the end of the semester to allow students to participate and attend to learn more the different cultures.

From multiple film screenings, learning martial arts on Library Quad, tasting different cuisines and many other events, students can take the time to learn about cultures they do not know about.

The only way to become more culturally aware is to actively participate, and the events planned allow students to do so in exciting different ways.

More information about the events planned for Asian Heritage Month can be found at  www.eiu.edu/asian_studies.

The daily editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Daily Eastern News