IT is sort of ingrained into all our heads that "India is a melting pot of cultures" or some other statement running closely along these lines. We, in India supposedly celebrate every festival that there is - day after day of holidays, bucket loads of sweets and savory treats, abundant offerings at the temple and to the various gods and goddesses. or so it is made out to be. in recent years i have seen, that even the festival days seem like any other ordinary day. there is no spark, no fervor of the festival. to the outside eye, no one can tell that we have a festival happening. seems like people no longer want to be bothered with the hassles of celebrating any of the festivals, anymore, which is a shame.
i recently went to singapore, during the diwali holidays and we lived in an area called little india. what a sight it was. the whole place was lit up with lights and decorations. it was so festive and lively. and then it got me thinking. in countries like the united states and the UK, they have all of four proper festivals in the year, which they like to call the holidays - christmas, thanksgiving, st. patrick's day and the 4th of july, their independence day. but each of these holidays are celebrated with such ardor. these are days that people look forward to, and let loose on. friends and family gathered together, cooking and feasting on scrumptious dishes and fulfilling whatever their respective rituals are, lighting the house, setting the table, going to church, offering prayer, exchanging gifts, spreading joy, etc.
what is the matter with us indians? why arnt we bothered? what is the big hassle in celebrating a few festivals a year? children wait around the whole year for diwali, dussehra and holi only to be disappointed at the end of it because the grown-ups do not feel like doing anything this year. why? arnt festivals a part of our culture, traditions and customs? if we are pushing the very thing that defines our country, how can we claim to be cultured people, especially since we do not honour our own culture and stand true to it?
i recently went to singapore, during the diwali holidays and we lived in an area called little india. what a sight it was. the whole place was lit up with lights and decorations. it was so festive and lively. and then it got me thinking. in countries like the united states and the UK, they have all of four proper festivals in the year, which they like to call the holidays - christmas, thanksgiving, st. patrick's day and the 4th of july, their independence day. but each of these holidays are celebrated with such ardor. these are days that people look forward to, and let loose on. friends and family gathered together, cooking and feasting on scrumptious dishes and fulfilling whatever their respective rituals are, lighting the house, setting the table, going to church, offering prayer, exchanging gifts, spreading joy, etc.
what is the matter with us indians? why arnt we bothered? what is the big hassle in celebrating a few festivals a year? children wait around the whole year for diwali, dussehra and holi only to be disappointed at the end of it because the grown-ups do not feel like doing anything this year. why? arnt festivals a part of our culture, traditions and customs? if we are pushing the very thing that defines our country, how can we claim to be cultured people, especially since we do not honour our own culture and stand true to it?
hmm.. maybe its just us. i mean maybe for the past few years we have had so many things going on that we didn't celebrate our festivals properly enough. because i know a lot of other people who had a blast during that diwali we didn't celebrate much because we were too tired from our trip. a lot of other people lit their houses, cleaned every corner of it, put rangoli's outside their houses, bought new clothes, sweets etc etc. went to parties-basically had a blast. we often assume that the whole world is doing what we are doing. i am happy, everyone else must be happy too. i don't watch that channel, i doubt anyone else watches it. you know-stuff like that. so maybe we were just not out there celebrating but someone else was. but yeah, the decorations were mind-blowing!! our government may not do that but we have decorations on a private level if not at a public level.
ReplyDeletei thought that too... but thats not the case... a lot of people said the same thing- that festivals today are not like they used to be... not our hindu festivals anyway!!
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