Festivals, Occasions and Celebrations

Festivals are occasions of social importance and interaction where people meet/greet each other and enjoy themselves. Its a celebration of some aspect of life. In earlier days it used to be linked to harvesting, agriculture, seasons etc., while these days it is that, plus a lot more. The olden festivals like diwali, holi etc. have rituals that we follow, like pujas, putting colors etc. Festivals like these had a lot to do with the farmers crop getting harvested and hence him/her being happy for the produce or for the onset of the season that was a big relief.

However, on each such occasion or festival I find myself awfully out of place. I know its a festival and for some reason I am supposed to be excited about it but truly speaking, on most such days, I feel no different from the day before or the day after. I now think its not because I am a social anomaly but that the whole social context has changed since these festivals were invented. For a farmer it made sense to be happy after a good harvest. In today's context probably we should have festivals revolving around world cup wins or the announcement and disbursement of bonuses. The idea being that there has to be a trigger for a festival, other than the occurrence of a day according to the calendar. Also, prevalence of A/C should eventually make climate linked festivals obsolete. Of course, in both these contexts, I find celebrating a new year hard to justify.

Anyway, once we settle the question of what we celebrate comes the idea of how we celebrate. Now this is the aspect where I think that there's so little creativity. Since the last so many years whenever I am happy about something, all I can think of is going to a good restaurant and having good food. Also, to me the overused (and according to me utterly mundane) way of celebrating by consuming alcohol does not really appeal. Nonetheless, I think that there are very few ways to celebrate anything.

In my experience it is difficult to find a person with whom you can share your sorrows without being pitied or made fun of. However, I think a person would have to be equally lucky to have someone with whom a moment of happiness can be shared without arousing the feeling of jealousy. I think that, ironically, it is the moments of happiness, the moments of celebration where one often finds himself at a loss on how and with whom to express his happiness. Maybe it is time we invent a totally new way of celebrating. Or maybe, given the right set of people, it would not even matter on how a festival/occasion has to be celebrated.