Every day is some special day. Dedicating a day for something special or important is in fashion. Acknowledging what is truly valuable carries significance, and is a welcome move.
But what is unwelcoming is when this practice becomes just a formality in daily affair. For a routine, or just a trivial matter, the day culture is finding a fertile ground.
The social invention is now taking rounds in the corridors of our ordinary living. This contagious strand of day celebration is setting a peculiar precedence.
Internationally, nationally, historically or thematically some days truly carry special significance. Raising awareness and sensitization to voice for a particular cause and a genuine concern is a necessity.
Some instances are a reminder or an alarm about a grave concern. The particularity attached to such important days speaks for that unique distinction.
However, over the recent past, day celebration trend has taken a trivial twist. The eccentric approach of celebrating days for almost everything is just not fine.
Be it relationships or hobbies, naïve tags have been attached. Starting from family, the observance of mothers’ day, fathers’ day, elders’ day are already in the list. As a matter of general knowledge, the overload of remembering so many days is a challenging task.
The day-driven enthusiasm of expressing concern and care is short-lived. The effervescence of emotions that seem to be borrowed temporarily evaporates instantly. As a crutch to lazily lean on, day culture reflects a kind of non-seriouness.
A successful endeavor demands spontaneity and consistency of thought and action. What matters is always important and valuable. And those who truly value the essence never look at the wall calendar or social media posts to accidentally align their attitude on day celebration basis.
Environment matters. It does not matter only on 5th June – on eve of World Environment Day. Being environment friendly for a day and careless throughout the year is a mere mockery.
Similarly, there are many individuals who are disabled because of some physical or mental ailment. Remembering persons with disability only on world day for persons with disability, December 03, and neglecting them for the rest of the year is just a show off.
With the advent and roll over of social media, social networking sites like facebook, instagram, twitter etc., have locked up people in the virtual cocoons. The flood of freely flowing posts and updates exposes the users to unheard, unseen, unknown and un-verified sea of information. Be it doctored, engineered, animated or edited stuff, the posts become viral in a jiffy. And as for the day culture, social media outlets are the first and fast platforms propagating social invention of days.
Like an alarm clock, day culture celebrations aimed at waking up people from deep slumber is a redundant exercise. Once the day-long celebration is over, it becomes a fade memory.
An injection of a day celebration is not enough to inculcate healthy attitude. Attitude formation is a long process. Practical examples and continuous experience leads to concrete shaping of personality characteristics. Knowledge, belief and motivation are cornerstones to cement the base for a healthy outlook.
Society is undergoing the massive invasion of celebrating days. For exploring and experiencing a proper way of life, it is important to move beyond celebrating days and embrace eternity in character and conduct.
Bilal Kaloo, Assistant Professor, Department of Teacher Education, North Campus, University of Kashmir.