By: Dr Satyavan Saurabh
India being an agrarian society, each change of season has either one or more festivals associated with it filling people with joy and entertainment. Festivals have been included on these occasions, which is appropriate and serve as a great occasion for togetherness and collective joy.
In the first category, there are those fasts, festivals, and fairs, which are cultural and whose objective is to protect the basic elements and ideas of Indian culture. All the major festivals of Hindus come under this category, like HolikaUtsav, Diwali, Basant, Shravani, Sankranti etc. Preservation of culture is their soul.
The second category includes those festivals which are celebrated in memory of some great personality. They are meant to remember the qualities, activities, pious character, and greatness of the person or persons whose memory they symbolize. Festivals like Ram Navami, Krishna Ashtami, BhishmaPanchami, Hanuman Jayanti, Nag Panchami, etc. can be placed in this category.
That means there is a festival here every day. An example of unity in diversity is seen on the occasion of such festivals. In the daily hustle and bustle, which has become energy-intensive and is becoming desolate, these festivals bring refreshing moments to a person along with happiness and joy. This applies not only to Hinduism but to various religions and sects.
These festivals are based on social beliefs, traditions, and past rituals of different people and communities. All festivals have their traditions and customs. These festivals provide character and emotional strength to humans by developing moral qualities like compassion, kindness, simplicity, hospitality, mutual love, goodwill, and philanthropy in human life. The pride and identity of Indian culture, these festivals are very important from social, religious, cultural, and spiritual points of view.
Social festivals and inter-school cultural programs provide wonderful opportunities to help build children’s self-confidence and interpersonal skills. Interpersonal skills include the ability to communicate and interact effectively with others and self-confidence is the belief in oneself and one’s abilities, both of which are essential for building positive relationships with others. Social festivals bring exposure to different cultures, languages, and traditions, which can broaden their horizons and help them develop empathy and understanding towards others. You can make new friends and contacts, which can help you feel more connected to the community and develop a sense of belonging.
These events are a great way to develop this because they bring a lot of people together, and thus create a feeling of unity and brotherhood. These teach us to be more accepting, tolerant, and inclusive towards people from different walks of life.
Marketization has changed all the systems. Our festivals also did not remain untouched by this. Perhaps that is why major festivals are losing their flavor and it seems that we celebrate festivals only to fulfill formalities. No one has time to inquire about people’s pain and suffering at these major festivals. Everyone is busy earning money. Dirty politics has also spoiled the fun of festivals.
We were slaves for hundreds of years. But our elders never let the color of these festivals fade. Today in this economic era everything has changed. It was said that on festival days all are equal. But now it is just a display of colors and the meeting is just a formality. Even on festival days, we are not able to fully connect with our loved ones and society. Due to this the taste of sweets has become bitter.
We talk about removing the darkness from the entire earth, but we are not able to remove the darkness even within ourselves. This ritual performed by us on festivals perhaps indicates that our festivals too have gone away along with our older generations.
Our festivals are the living form of our sensibilities and traditions, which every community member likes to celebrate or rather, to celebrate again and again, every year. Innumerable concerns about our civilization and culture are hidden in these beliefs, traditions, and ideas. The thought of our festivity, which fills our lives with unique colors of life, gives birth to a new flow of zeal and enthusiasm in the mind. Both our mind and life are festive. Our festive spirit binds family and society together. It teaches us to live in an organized manner.
Social festivals provide a unique platform to collaborate, meet and socialize with peers, showcase one’s talent, and teach and learn about different cultures and traditions. Is. These skills are an essential part of our lives and are often at the core of almost all aspects of our lives.
The seeds of Indian culture are hidden in festivals which have an unmatched contribution to the development of Indian culture. Fasts, festivals, fairs, etc. have special significance in Indian culture. Most of the festivals of Hindus are celebrated because Hindu sages have made plans to make life interesting and beautiful. Every festival, fast, celebration, fair, etc. has a hidden significance. They have been decided keeping a specific idea or objective in mind.
Special emphasis has been laid on the need for value education to re-establish values. Value education has become the need of the hour today. Therefore, it needs to be implemented as soon as possible. In the present digital age, people are forgetting their civilization and culture.
The writer is a poet, freelance journalist and columnist,All India Radio and TV panellist.
