Systems around Festivals
Firstly, wish you all a very happy Gudi Padwa, Ugadi, Yugadi, Baisakhi, Cheti Chand!! (These are the few names that I know. Please let me know more names of the harvest festivals around 😊)
One festival celebrated on the same day but with different names! Wow! I love this diversity.
In my storytelling sessions, I love telling festival stories. The stories behind celebrating festivals are always interesting and relatable.
This particular festival has different practices all over India. But there is one factor that revolves around this festival is the nature. This festival marks the arrival of Spring and the reaping of Rabi Crops. A typical harvest festival celebrated all over India but in different ways and traditions.
Not only this, but the practices of celebrating this festival are also attached to our health.
· Infants are given a bath with warm water that is kept in the sun the whole day, specifically in a copper container, and by scrubbing their body with steamed raw mango. Why? This naturally made warm water & steamed raw mango helps the infant to cope up with the increasing heat. Thus, decreasing the chances of falling sick during climate change.
· People start savouring raw mango delicacies. Why? Raw Mango prevents dehydration. In the month of April, when the temperature soars, people are bound to get dehydrated. Use of raw mango in our regular food items like salads, rasam, dal, rice, aam panna, etc., not only helps in reducing dehydration but also adds to the taste of regular food.
· Traditionally, people eat a mixture of neem leaves and jaggery today. Why? Spring marks the period of climate change. There is no special introduction needed to know the health benefits of Neem leaves. Add some jaggery to it and it’ll balance the taste levels and also increase the iron in your body.
· In some parts of India, Ugadi Pachadi is one of the prominent rituals associated with this festival. The Pachadi has six different tastes assimilated in it- sweet, salty, bitter, tangy, spicy, and sour. Each taste provides different faces of life. This concept resonates with a beautiful philosophy, ‘Life doesn’t only mean happiness (sweetness) but every facet (taste) is important.
Another reason for celebrating any festival is, people, love to come together and celebrate. And I think this is the main reason for a festival to be called a FESTIVAL- The sheer joy of meeting our close ones. I love how LOVE rules our life!
If you zoom out and watch, most of our festivals revolve around the earth, nature, health, and love- The four essentials needed to be ALIVE!
How I love the essence of these festivals!
But now, when we zoom in and see, we see that these festivals have started getting a different meaning altogether.
Ganesh Festival, Janmashtami, and Navratri have turned out to be BIG EVENTS where people just find a way out for unresourceful practices.
Raksha Bandhan is more about BIG gifts and BIG return gifts. Diwali is more about leaving the house to go on a vacation on festival day.
Holi is more of a party than just tuning in to your favourite music and dance.
Few people stick to the essence of these festivals and celebrations.
Earlier when we used to step out with my son to show him the celebrations outside, I used to be afraid if he started associating these festivals with loudspeakers, aimless dancing, consuming alcohol, or moving away from family without relating to the spirit of these festivals.
There is a different picture of the zoom out and zoom in. The main motive of celebrating festivals is kept aside and unresourceful things are prioritized. And this has started changing our subjective experiences.
Unresourceful Systems leads to Unresourceful Subjective Experiences. And this leads to an even more Unresourceful System.
WHY do we create such systems that bring in un-resourcefulness? And these SYSTEMS are created by WHOM? WE PEOPLE!
It’s time we start observing what these SYSTEMS have to tell us as human beings. It is time we zoom out, zoom in and start neutralizing our subjective experiences.
It is time to do our bit, for the world will be a better place then!
P.S. These are totally the author’s views and not imposing on others. Everyone has their own subjective experience 😊
