America can most appropriately be called “the celebration nation” as each year the numbers of festivals and other annual celebrations continue to mount.
Festivals began primarily as religious celebrations of feasting and entertainment expressing joy, fear and or feelings of gratitude. Many think that the custom originated from the fears and superstitions of a primitive mankind puzzled or frightened by many things of nature. As civilization matured festivals became more elaborate and inclusive of many non-religious elements.
A modern website which began with the listing of only a couple of hundred known festivals a few years back has since grown to several thousand listings. Right in our Roanoke Valley can be found art festivals, music festivals, Festival in the Park, the eloquent Local Colors Festival celebrating the Valley’s cultural diversity which was organized and coordinated by our city’s ”Ambassador of Goodwill,” Pearl Fu. Also there is the increasingly popular Henry Street Festival, which originated on Henry Street through the Harrison Museum of African American Culture, and the upcoming Peace Wave Festival sponsored annually by Ploughshares Peace Center.
We are also surrounded by festivals throughout the state which range from widely acclaimed Hampton Jazz Festival to the proverbial “new kid on the Block,” Warren St. Festival in Rocky Mount gaining momentum and popularity each year.
Although all festivals are celebrations, all celebrations are not festive. Many are occasions marked with solemn ceremonies while others may be quiet observances or simply refraining from work or other routine behavior.
Through commercialization the occasions for celebration continue to mount adding patriotic, religious, seasonal and national anniversaries to the already stacked deck until we find ourselves in a perpetual state of celebration.
It is not the celebration itself that counts as much as motivation for the celebration. We are quick to celebrate atrocities and occasions of war including specific battles and reenactments but slow to celebrate peaceful progress and remain totally unaware of many who dared to defy the odds to bring it about.
It was a newcomer to the Roanoke Valley who brought to my attention that the week, August 27, marked the anniversary of the peaceful desegregation of many public places in this city through the combined action of an equal number of Black and White local professionals (in 1960). To date no one celebrates this and few are even aware of it. The same applies to any number of other unrequited acts of bravery and heroism which led to whatever progress and freedoms we may now enjoy.
Before getting caught up into the celebration, assess the motivation. You may find that the energy and resources required may be better spent on something which will have a more beneficial effect on more people for a longer extended period of time.
To focus on anything is to honor it. To honor it is to encourage it. To encourage it is to feed it and whatever is best fed will grow fastest and biggest. Therefore practice recognizing and celebrating good deeds for goodness is light and in the Baha’i writings we read “Light is good in whatsoever lamp it may shine..When a thought of war comes, oppose it with a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hate must be destroyed with a more powerful thought of love.”
Therefore, practice love, practice kindness, and courtesy for there can be no perfection without practice and repetition and no true joyous celebration without proper motivation.
