Why celebrate festivals?
Why does <anything> happen? This question reflects curiosity, often easily questioned by kids. As adults, we tend to accept things at face value because that’s how we’ve always seen them. So, with the new year upon us, it’s worth asking things that are around us: Why do we celebrate the new year or any festival, for that matter?
Before we go into the piece, here’s the current calendar we follow and its origin:
One might casually blame the celebration of the new year as a clever conspiracy, suggesting it’s designed to keep us chained to the wheels of capitalism. But celebrations mean much more. For now we will have to put aside the petition for two extra months in an year for vacation in Barbieland, where everything is perfect, and there’s no room for worries, allowing endless spending and buying.
The classic seven-day week gives a decent structure to our lives, helping us design our days and weeks, plan ahead, and manage our routines. Long-term planning is present in our daily existence — schools, colleges, and offices have fixed slots and timings for work and holidays. So if we actually see, our lives essentially orbit around festivals and holidays. How much these events influence and play a role in our lives depends entirely on us.
Think about the manual laborer slogging away in a tough job, doing work usually reserved for the underprivileged or your domestic help. For them, these festivals become a big deal — a time when everyone gathers, and they feel a sense of connection with family and the community. We all crave freedom and ways to express ourselves. Maybe for our laborer friend, the loud music and dance during Ganpati is the only time they can truly let loose, something they usually don’t get to do on any normal day. That’s why festivals are something they eagerly look forward to.
People often say they anticipate Christmas because it’s when many of their long-lost friends visit their hometowns, and they can have all the fun they want. A friend of mine, caught up in a hectic college schedule, decided to join a Garba workshop before Navratri. She told me how just an hour of Garba was so therapeutic for her that she kicked off two guys who were trying to mess up her life, talk about post-Garba clarity in life :P
An event like Black Friday, that kicked off because people just wanted more time to catch up after Thanksgiving. It became the starting point for Christmas prep and the whole holiday shebang. The smart folks in marketing and business caught onto this vibe, making it the grand time for sales. It’s not just the big brands — even freelancers and creators have a lot going on during this period.
You know how a new beginning is like a green light for a fresh start? It’s the cue for reflection and a positive spin on life. We’re all making resolutions during this time — losing weight, saving more, maybe traveling/reading more and eating healthy. For me? It is about writing more. Sure, many of us fumble a bit after a few weeks, but if you look at the big picture, someone out there has probably made a move to change their life for the better. And if we see hedonic treadmill, things generally turn out for the good in the long run (unlike the Japanese stock index).
Yesterday is history; tomorrow is a mystery, so you should cherish the present because that’s the gift you’ve got right now. A new year also gives us the strength to forget the past, forgive people, and are significant enough to help us overcome grief as it marks something new and fresh. You can’t really do anything about the past that’s been bad, but all you can do is keep it connected with you, process the bad memories so they don’t affect you in the future, and hold on to the good ones. You never know what will happen tomorrow, so it’s best to keep it open for surprises.
On a personal note, as a single child, festivals always meant having a boring and lonely time for me. I never quite looked forward to festivals because that meant I’d have no school friends around because they would be busy with their own families. I also remember a day when I was heading back home with a friend and it was Rakshabandhan the next day, and we could see stalls selling Rakhis all around. She mentioned how festivals generate a nice vibe in the whole city. I always had a different experience growing up, but I agreed with her words without telling my experience and disagreeing and killing the vibe of the moment. Little did she know how festivals were for me during my childhood. Another issue was that I was pretty introverted until I started college. But things have changed now. I like festivals because I now have lots of folks to spend time with, and it always means some celebration. Moreover, you don’t need to work on festivals, and if they’re lined up one after the other, you can make travel plans.
So yeah, you might not feel it, but events and festivals bring us closer and mark events in our lives. And if you didn’t have a cake this New Year, treat yoself and might as well get a friend along with you.
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