Prepare the following article for translation (in the tutorials) .
Last year, I did a post called “When
is the right time to put up the Christmas tree?” and I want to talk some
more about it today because all the malls and shops in Australia have had their
Christmas lights and Christmas trees up for more than a month now.
I really think it is a bit too early to start the Christmas
decorations but the business minded people don’t care about these at all. They
think of all these festivals as a money making opportunity. The impact of
commercialization has marred the real meaning of religious and traditional
customs. The shops and malls here never followed the values but instead
everywhere there’s a lot of hype. During festivals, malls attract you with
discounts and people go mad shopping.
As soon as Christmas is up, the shops will be filled with
Easter eggs and hot cross buns in January, almost 3 months before Easter.
No matter what religion we follow, any festival has
significance and value but when one commercializes festivals, that basic aim is
forgotten and everyone involved is thinking, “What am I going to get on this
festival?” In fact, in some instances; the festivals have been commercialized so
much, that kids do not even know the significance of the festival and consider
it just another holiday or just another chance to increase their material
possessions.
In this way, festivals lose their real significance since
their aim was first, to spread love and peace and second, to celebrate the
festival keeping in mind the reason why the festival was being celebrated.
It is not only in Australia, the commercialisation of
festival’s happening in Nepal as well. Previously, festivals like Dashain and
Tihar were family occasions. Dashain was all about family get together and
family feast and Tihar was celebrated by lighting small diyos and candles,
having a small puja and burning a few crackers to rejoice the homecoming of Lord
Ram from his exile on this day. Nobody cared about what you wore or what you got
as a present, but instead all that mattered was having fun and appreciating the
day for what it symbolized.
But today,
Dashain and
Tihar is all about the show of money with what one has bought for the
occasion or how big the party was in one’s house, what you got as a gift etc. If
parents have their kids overseas, how much money children have sent for the
festivals?
Children don’t even know why they have the day off from
school to celebrate that day.
Festivals are not meant to be opportunities for financial
gain for brands and companies. They are meant to be occasions for religious
observance and for people to understand and respect the meaning behind them. I
really think, children should be taught about traditional festivals in
kindergarten and we should keep the valuable elements of the traditional
festivals and preserve them for future generations.
https://nepaliaustralian.com/2012/11/29/commercialisation-of-festivals-how-much-is-too-much/