No action is devoid of motivation. Your motivation can be intrinsic, that comes from within or it can be extrinsic, that is, emerging from external factors. If you do something to make yourself happy and not for seeking validation from others, that’s the most satisfying thing ever. When it comes to festivals and holidays, we don’t even realise when we end up crossing that line of control.
Between using festivals to flaunt our lives to the world and celebrating those in a way that feels warm to us, the latter has a guilt-free ring to it. When it comes to our children, they learn what we teach or so is the hope, isn’t it? This means that we should help our children see festivals (and happiness) from a more meaningful perspective.
Commercialisation of holidays
Be it Diwali, Christmas, or New Year, these festivals and holidays are the ideal time for people to indulge themselves. Consumerism blurs the line between dissipation of our money in frivolous expenses and wise expenditures. Between wanting to ship an overpriced box of holiday goodies to our loved one in another country and saving that money, so we don’t end up broke later, the former almost always wins.
And then there are Ad hoc holidays such as Valentine’s Day, that will make you feel like you’re choking on flowers and heart-shaped everything. Your love is often measured by the prodigiousness of your materialistic expression. ‘