How festivals foster bond between siblings

There is something about festivals, siblings and bonding. The word festival conjures an image in mind where families gather together and celebrate; the children of all age groups comprising – siblings, and cousins – indulge in some easy banter with each other. There is lots of teasing, food specifically sweets to savour, as  festivals create moments for families to celebrate traditions, rituals, share values from their respective culture and ongoing practicing to preserve them. Yes, but how does that foster bond between siblings. Here’s how:

Festivals bring freshness in our lives: The literal meaning of festivals suggests a period of festive activities, cultural events or entertainment. With the onset of festivals, there is freshness in the air; there is energy and vigour all around. This freshness brings along new hopes, aspirations with it new chance to strengthen the ties between siblings and cousins.

Festival encourages extended family get-togethers: Celebrations these days have seen a drastic shift over the years. In the olden days, we either mostly had joint families or people used to live close by. Festivals then used to be about celebrations, meeting of people both within the family and outside, preparation of special kinds of dishes, practicing rituals and probably narrating stories or fables from the mythological text books. But these days with nuclear families being a trend, a child doesn’t get to meet her extended family that often and festivals encourage that get-together. Festivals ensure that we take time out from our busy schedules and spend some moments of joy and happiness with each other. Your child gets to meet her extended family and other children of her age group.

Traditional rituals are followed: Customised moments along with the traditional rituals are wonderful times for siblings to meet, get connected and have fun together. They get to share creative ideas, participate with each other in decorations and relish scrumptious delicacies together. However as compared to the olden days, one thing that these days your child doesn’t get much exposed to is narration of mythological stories. If we look at this particular element of storytelling, in my opinion this used to be probably the best time when siblings used to sit with each other along with their grandparents and listen to the surprises of the over animated fables. The entire session of listening to these traditional stories helped children a lot in learning about various aspects of their culture.

Festivals help in keeping your child to her roots: At the same time festivals are also a strong means for parents to keep their child attached to the roots and keep the love and warmth of having a family and relatives alive in them. Everybody comes together as a family and your child receives positive role modelling of forming relationships and bonding with each other. The colours, zest, joy and happiness of the festivals are infectious and all of this energy and vibe captured becomes lifetime memories for generations to come.

These are some of the ways I think festivals foster bond between siblings. What do you think? Please do share your views and feedback in the comments section below.