The Holidays Or How To Celebrate Life In Difficult Times

What is the deep meaning of Christmas? The keywords of Christmas are light, peace and family. The sun seems to be reborn reversing its descent on the horizon and with it a being arrives on Earth that brings a new light. Something changes in nature. We want to be warmer with those around us and we face the year with good intentions, which seems an expression of the beneficial nature of these days.

Probably, as Daniel Bonet wrote, it is not that it is a special time because it is a party, but rather that it is a party because it is special. So even in the worst of times, celebrating can help us heal our emotions.

“Inopportune” parties: resurfacing after misfortune

Every party is a revival of life, a counterpoint to death and a renewal of one to give to the other and to life.

Sometimes I have thought that the party is an exception to the rule, to the orderliness of social life, but many other times I believe that thanks to the party that order is maintained. For hours or days, generosity and the absence of calculation prevail. Then it’s time to clean up that space and wait for next year …

The party is not only for joyful moments: it also evokes and even celebrates catastrophes, and many times it helps to overcome deaths and misfortunes, to overcome adversity, to regain life force or to survive when everything has been lost.

The ability to overcome adversity, which today we call resilience, is at the bottom of each one of us but also at the heart of each society and its parties.

When Zorba the Greek sees his mining business in Crete ruined, after years of work, he starts dancing with a frenzy. “Man needs to be a little crazy – he tells us – because, if not, he never dares to cut the rope and be free.” Those who experienced the New Orleans carnival in 2006, half a year after Hurricane Katrina had devastated the city, may have felt all this firsthand.

Despite the doomsayers, the bad news, the announced crises, we still have the sensitivity to capture the festive side of life. The gratitude and the ceremonies give us clarity to understand and strength to move forward.

Even when the so-called big parties do not motivate us because we are in a situation of risk, there are always personal or small group rituals.

It is possible to celebrate every morning that we are awake, that we breathe deeply and deeply, that we can recognize each organ of the body, that we enjoy each bite of food that we have for today, the air and the sun, the sounds we perceive and the colors that they flood us.

And if what is perceived by the senses is not pleasant, we can imagine a better environment and proceed as if it were real. Nothing prevents us from talking to whoever is next to us or doing a task with care.

Every day we have the opportunity to regain our best posture and best smile or laugh, because, as the Bhagavad Gita says: “Do not cry for the living, do not cry for the dead, neither I nor you nor any of these never ceased to exist, nor from now on. Everything that lives, always lives! “.

With this I invite you and I invite you to always celebrate the party from distraction and concentration, from making contact with reality, to enjoy life at all times and places.

When the party doesn’t seem special

I do not remember when or where, but it is certain that at some point I have lost the sense of my party.

I feel like I have to celebrate something, but also that this is not my party. Songs are sung that are not my songs and my body becomes dumb and stopped.

It has been a long time that I may not celebrate the holidays, I have remained as in a time of mourning, in which the colors of life have disappeared or where only the black and white stand out that sustain sadness, where I have been forgetting the music that he sang, the dances and the bars that moved me. But perhaps looking from this perspective has made me see with another clarity the importance of the party.

Also, understand the mourning that is established when a person, family, tribe or people have lost their lives, the illusions, the songs and the dances of their parties, and they wander in search of the illusions, the meaning, the center of their life. , the rhythm, the melody, the force that gives meaning to existence again, trying to find that moment and place where surrender, madness, laughter, knowing how to enjoy every moment of life converge.

I wonder: in this world of so many sounds, who sings my songs, who knows how to accompany the rhythms of my dance, who enjoys my party and I in his, where is my place, my mission and my destiny?

Party and rest are necessary to find oneself or to get lost, or for both. The festival is necessary to remember life and also to remember death, as in the dance of the god Shiva, who destroys and builds, who kills and gives life at the same time.

Recovering the illusion for the party: let’s start with the music

Why not dance at home these parties, even in a small committee ? Neurologist Oliver Sacks states that “Music is the deepest non-chemical medicine. ” I think he’s right. Music brings us closer to a state of euphoria, increases our empathy, we understand each other much better and communicate emotions better. The whole brain gets to work with it.

The benefits of dancing

With dance, not only the grace of movement is recovered, but also the health of the soul and body. Through a simple dance we can feel great well-being. And dancing in a group tends to further enhance its effects:

• Have fun and enjoy physically. The joy of dancing is above the pain that can be experienced.
• Modify consciousness, access states of consciousness that open new doors for us to observe our way of perceiving reality and unfolding in life.
• Know the rhythm. Thanks above all to understanding the rhythm and knowing how to measure time, we can plan a calendar and carry out programs or make important decisions that help us survive. We also learn to distinguish between the various stages that a project or relationship goes through.
• Remember the past, keep the memory of what happened, tell it with the letter. Also remember past emotions. All that can come to mind while dancing.
• Live in the present. Since the dance demands a response and an instantaneous understanding with the music of that moment. It involves a dialogue between the body and the sound.
• Preserving what is useful for the survival of the individual and the species, preserving and transmitting genes, life. Many of us are the consequence of a party; our parents met in her and the relationship that bore fruit began from her.

Connect over time

The party distills the philosophies and science of many countries and perhaps even originates them. The festival is not celebrated for its own sake, or anywhere: the day and the moment must be set. For this, time and the stars were observed.

The calendar, that paper that hangs on many walls marking the holidays, is the result of observing the sun and nature during many seasons. It indicates the time for sowing and for harvesting, the time to work and the time to celebrate. It announces the changes of seasons and the rainy season.

Also, when highlighting certain days, remember that these are not like the others. Through them an almost timeless dimension of existence is accessed. They are days covered with a special power. They reflect on issues that give meaning to life, that recall the origins, the path followed and what gives us strength and well-being.

The spiritual aspect is also an intrinsic part of the festival and for its religious commemoration temples, synagogues, cathedrals, mosques were built … places of worship that marked the place and time of the festival, also extolling the spiritual significance of the festival. that places us before the vast universe of cyclical changes.

The important question is then thrown at us: what do we do in this world? And the answer comes: accept it and have a good time … to begin with, during the party.

It is easy to understand from the depths that we depend on others to have a good time. Our well-being is interrelated. Gratitude and openness to others are a common denominator in these celebrations.