Festivals

 Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Festivals are always a celebration of Man Alive. As integral parts of  religious rituals festivals are life celebrations. Man’s joys, sorrows, hopes and frustrations in the pastoral and agrarian contexts of life are expressed through the festivals. A cynic may say that festivals are  psychic  compensation for social boredom. But such compensations were required when man depended  on agriculture and no other avenues of life sustenance were available.

Festivals are at times totemic, at times celebratory, often propitiatory. These are expressions of ideological faith of a human collective. In ancient Greece too  we had festivals as the Greeks had created a mythic order above man  for life management. In the other civilizations too we  have festivals. Christmas is, perhaps , the greatest festival celebrated all over the world. Hindus have multiplicity of gods and goddesses and almost every other day there is some festival.  In Odisha since Jagannath is the chief deity of the people as per the temple tradition, 13 festivals are observed in 12 months. But the most important festivals for the Hindus  are Dussehra, Diwali and Holi. Nowdays  the Ganesh festival is rivalling the Durga puja. Festivals always unite people for a common cause. The famous car festival of Puri is always an occasion for almost an International meet. In the ancient days  the King of Puri had consultations with his spies spread all around and the kings of other kingdoms for precautions against attacks etc. The cultures of different states and people had a chance for contact and mutual enrichment.

But today festivals are a platform for the vulgar display of the nouve riche. Commercialization leads to dilution of faith, individual display or group display of snobbish pomposity leads to more competition: as a consequence mutuality and intermingling gets negated. Moreover we now experience communalization of such festivals, which compels us to rethink. If festivals are celebrated for communal passions and competitive display of wealth or local pride the purpose is lost. The younger generation has more competitive tests for survival in the global situation. Festivals for them are waste of working days on passionate beliefs which are not relevant to the new challenges to life in the changed order of things.

History is witness to the change and evolution of new forms of worship, new forms of faith. In the process of cultural evolution many a form loses relevance and new forms emerge. Like the changes in human evolution from the amoeba to the Homo Sapiens culture too changes its tone, tenor and at times culture gets destroyed. Today festivals are at critical crossroads facing even extinction. The reasons are not far to seek.

Today man is not integrally connected to the society; he is a self – contained world in himself. The scientific temper may not have replaced our fear-induced mindset altogether but the medieval, pre- modern and emotional approach to life has definitely changed. A rationalist way of thinking is slowly entering the society. The individual by his schooling and exposure to technology is slowly moving away from the ritualistic frame which religion imposed. In Hinduism, specially, there is no regimentation. In Islam reading Namaz at least five times a day and going to the mosque are compulsory. The dress code and the culture codes are thrust on muslim children right from the Madrassa days. The Madrassas do not promote scientific ways of thinking nor do they permit cultural individualism. In Christianity too attending the church every Sunday is mandatory and those who do not attend Church services are termed agnostics or non- believers.

But their number gradually increases in the Christian world as there is no regimentation.The Hindus in this respect are more liberal. One who never goes to a temple or prays for a day is also a Hindu till death. Modern education and awareness of environment protection and ecological problems make the educated generations turn away from age old rituals. Comparatively green deepavali this year is illustrative of the change in the mindset of the younger generation. They consider pollution a greater evil than Ravana and Ram should destroy the evil of pollution. Hence no no to crackers. The rivers are polluted by our traditional belief which now must change to save the greatest monument – the Earth.

The knowledge of reality and awareness gradually move the new generation away from celebrating festivals. There are other greener ways of celebrations and hopefully in the days to come ways and means will be found to combine tradition and modernity in our festivals so that the air, water and other elements do not get polluted. The joys of triumph or love or devotion can be expressed in environment- friendly ways if we do not imperil our own survival by following the traditional ways with ostentatious snobbery. The slogan now is : Think green , Live green.