Recently in my school, we had a comic strip making activity, where we were given 3-4 topics from which we had to choose one and make a comic strip. I chose the topic festivals and my story was about a boy getting teleported back into time, and seeing the difference between festivals now VS in the olden days. This activity really got me thinking about the true meaning of festivals and how they have changed with time. Many times my grandparents and parents tell me ‘back in my day’ kind of stories, where they tell me about how old habits have changed, our festivals have changed, our values and ideals have changed too.
My parents as well as grandparents all grew up in small towns, where their food habits used to be so different from what they are today. Everyone ate simple food on a daily basis. Sweets and other delicacies were only prepared during festivals and other special occasions.Beyond food habits, the whole idea of festivals has changed. Today, people buy clothes whenever they want, the wait for special occasions no longer remains. Moreover, we end up staying at home for festivals given the difficulty to travel to native places and in turn,meeting relatives and close ones during festivals becomes tough unless they stay near-by.
Plus, back in the day people used to look forward to festivals because they used to work hard year round, and take time off & enjoy only during festivals and other special occasions. They would wear nice clothes and eat to their fullest only during festivals. There was something special about festivals but now, everyone does the above on a regular basis so there is nothing special about festivals any longer!
However, due to the current pandemic, now we are forced to stay indoor and, due to this we (or atleast, I) ended up practicing some old habits again such as eating sweets and other delicacies only on special occasions or wearing new clothes only during the festive season or my birthday and more. Although, we keep cursing the lock-down, we should also be grateful in a way that we are able to finally understand the true meaning of festivals.
Yours festively,
Sameeksha
P.S. I’m merely just sharing my opinions and I don’t mean to force them onto anyone or hurt anyone’s values/sentiments.