Why should we celebrate festivals?
Did you ever wonder what is a festival and why we celebrate them? I am not referring to the Archie’s type commercial festivals, but the traditional ones. There...
Did you ever wonder what is a festival and why we celebrate them? I am not referring to the Archie’s type commercial festivals, but the traditional ones. There was a time when we used to look forward to festivals, but now most of us look forward to a holiday in the name of festivals. Let me share some thoughts on why should we celebrate festivals.
Let us start by knowing what these words really mean.
Festival
One of the origins of the word Festival was from “Feast” which was used in common secular parlance for “large or elaborate meal”. There festivals range from religious importance to harvest to seasonal change to events of historical significance. While most festivals have religious origins, they entwine cultural and religious significance in traditional activities. All festivals culminate in the consumption of specially prepared food and they bring people together.
Celebrate
Celebrate meaning – “Acknowledge (a significant or happy day or event) with a social gathering or enjoyable activity.”
Now you can see that it’s way beyond just a holiday.
Let us now look at why people took a lot of pride in celebrating festivals:
- Brings people closer – Today, we just send one message on WhatsApp to all the relatives and friends in the group and be done with it. In the past, people used to call each member of the family, friends, colleagues and wish them. Not just that, if friends / relatives are in the same area, they used to personally visit and wish by sharing sweets or some goodies. This created an unwritten bond between people.
- Builds genuine feeling – A festival is a time when everyone wins. This common feeling of winning makes us share the happy moment with everyone by wishing people around us. We call our loved ones, friends and colleagues to wish them and know their well-being. The celebratory moment makes the wishes and love more genuine and real than the other times.
- Gives a new beginning – A festival is considered as a beginning of a new innings. That’s the reason most of our festival wishes start with “have a great year”. The festival gives us a new impetus and new energy to leave the bad things behind and think ahead to start a new journey.
- Creates a secular feeling – Festivals teach us more secularism than we give them credit for. Take Diwali for example. Diwali ended up being a festival of endless noise and sound pollution, but the lights in Diwali teach us a lot.
“Diya (oil lamps) are of various sizes and shapes, but the light is the same”
Diwali is around the corner and think hard about how you want to celebrate it. Festivals are a deliberate intervention to help us get away from the everyday rat race and indulge ourselves in a genuine celebration. So, go ahead and celebrate this Diwali and rest of the festive season with all zest and zeal.
Wishing you a great and a safe Diwali.
