FESTIVALS AND HOLIDAYS GALORE

 

When it comes to public holidays we Indians top the list. With so many cultural, religious and civilization strings intertwining in our society we have festivals and celebrations at the drop of a hat. As if these were not enough we commemorate the birthdays of departed leaders and public figures by declaring a holiday in their name! But leaving all these established holidays aside there are some very strange local holidays which may be perfect working days in other parts of our country. Let me give you only six examples: 

 

1	Hemis Festival	23rd-24th June	Hemis Monastery in Leh
2	Dahi Handi, Janmashtami	2nd September	Mathura, UP, Maharashtra
3	Rural Olympics, Kila Raipur	2nd, 3rd, 4th, February	Kila Raipur Village, Near Ludhiana
4	Onam	August - September	Kerela
5	Matho Nagrang Festival	1st and 2nd March	Matho Nagrang Monastery (Leh)
6	Sao Joao	24th June	Goa

The Hemis Festival is celebrated to honour the founder of Tantric Buddhism in the country of Tibet, Guru Padmasambhava.The lamas adorn beautifully designed large size masks (see above). Every mask represents a different character such as wizard, slayer of demons, Guru Trapko, Yama (God of Death), Guru Padmasambhava, Demons among others. The dances depict the triumph of good over evil.

 

The Dahi Handi is a modern-day representation of the annoying yet adorable habit of Lord Krishan who was notorious for stealing freshly made butter stored in earthen pots, prepared by the village belles. Celebrated in Mathura in Uttar Pradesh and all over Maharashtra it is a cacophony of colours, music, pyramid building to reach the earthen pot filled with butter and hanging from a massive height!

 

Rural Olympics in Kila Raipur are so popular that locals and sports enthusiast around the world eagerly await this festival, and more than 4000 sportsmen participate in it each year. Non-sporting events held during the Rural Olympics include the likes off, tractor, camel, dog racing, horse dancing, pulling of bikes and cards with one’s teeth, riding cycles that have been set ablaze.

 

 The Matho Nagrang Festival has monks performing masked dances. They adorn beautifully robes made with the most beautiful quality silk and elaborate brocades. The mask represents the various god and goddesses worshipped at the monastery. A striking feature of the festival is a special appearance by two oracles. These oracles emerge from month-long isolation and mediation. Masked dancers accompany them into the monastery courtyard where they predict the future. Locals and visitors from far off places come to the festivals just to seek their advice and blessings.

 

In Viva Sao Joao young men and children all jump in various Goan water bodies and retrieve gifts thrown in by villagers. Young girls of marriageable age too throw fruits, vegetables and flowers into the water for the fulfillment of their wishes. And because it is Goa there is a lot of Feni drinking!

 

Onam is a harvest festival of Kerala like Bihu in Assam and Lohri in Punjab but celebrated in August-September. These festivals are to celebrate a bountiful harvest. Onam is a 10-day long extravagant celebration that includes the likes of feasting, dancing to the beats of the Pulikali, a traditional musical instrument and singing. Games such as snake boat races, tug of war etc. are played during Onam.

 

But if you think that we Indians are a bit crazy about these weird holidays you have not seen the world. Whether celebrating a sporting event that no-one else cares about, commemorating a slice of history that happened elsewhere or offering an excuse to tuck into some darned good fruit, the world offers us some rather strange public holidays. Some are a basic excuse for a party, others rather more solemn, but here are a few of the weirdest.

 

AFL Grand Final Eve in Victoria, Australia

The AFL Grand Final may be one of Australia's biggest sporting occasions, but does the state really need a public holiday on the Friday before to get everyone prepared for it? Either way, the good people of Victoria were happy to go along with it, if only as an opportunity to go out on the Thursday night and not worry all that much about alcohol consumption levels.

 

Melbourne Cup Day in Victoria, Australia

The holiday on the day of the Melbourne Cup was originally designed to honour the Prince of Wales' birthday. But in 1875, the Melbourne Cup was shifted to from a Thursday to Tuesday in order to coincide. It proved popular, and Victorians soon decided they cared more about the horses than the prince. It was only in 1993, however, that the first Tuesday of November was permanently enshrined in state law as a public holiday.

 

Royal Hobart Regatta Day in Tasmania, Australia

The Tasmanians too declare public holidays for parochial sporting events. Big chunks of Tasmania take the second Monday of February off to celebrate the Royal Hobart Regatta. Well, in theory, anyway. Practically nobody cares about the yachting – it's just an excuse for an extra day off work.

 

Dragon Boat Festival Day in Hong Kong

Hong Kong takes one day off for the Dragon Boat Festival. This takes place on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese calendar, which is generally around May or June. It starts to make more sense when you realise there's a long-standing Chinese tradition of warding off bad luck on this day. The dragon boat races came much later – but became such a focal point that the public holiday took their name.

 

Melon Day in Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan is a prodigious producer of musk melons. And, in 1993, it was decided that this must be celebrated. So, a public holiday was declared, and it has been held on the second Sunday of every August since. The date was picked because that's around the time the favoured varietal of melon ripens. Capital city Ashgabat is the best place to celebrate Melon Day, with plenty of open-air tasting sessions. 

 

Flag Day in Argentina

A holiday celebrating a flag might seem a bit weird, but Argentina's flag is seen as a symbol of independence. It was first raised on February 27, 1812, but the national holiday takes place on June 20. That's because the creator of the flag, Manuel Belgrano died on that date in 1820. The biggest celebrations take place in the city of Rosario, where the flag was initially raised.

 

Hangul Day in South Korea

Hangul Day celebrates the invention of the Korean alphabet. This alphabet is rare in that there is historic record of exactly when it was introduced – back in the 15th century, courtesy of King Sejong the Great. When the Korean government tried to remove the holiday from the calendar there was enough public uproar to ensure it was reinstated in 2013.

 

Day of Silence in Bali

The Day of Silence, or Nyepi, is designed as a day of self-reflection, and anything that would get in the way of that reflection is restricted. That means all types entertainment, working, travelling and even going to the beach are out. Tourists are expected to stick to the rules and stay confined to their hotel for the entire day. The dates change according to the Balinese calendar, but it takes place in March.

 

Columbus Day in the US

A United States federal holiday, Columbus Day celebrates the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. The strange part is that Columbus, a Genoese explorer sponsored by the Spanish Crown, never set foot in what is now the US. The first landing in the Americas was in the Bahamas. What's more, the US rarely celebrates Columbus Day on the actual anniversary. It should be October 12, but the public holiday has been assigned to the second Monday in October, just to make it a long weekend.

 

Oil Nationalization Day in Iran

Many countries have pretty dry-sounding public holidays based around centuries-old battles, but Iran goes one step further, giving a day off for the anniversary of the nationalisation of the country's oil industry. Don't expect too many carnival parades for this one. The exact date is based on the Solar Hijri calendar, but tends to fall in mid-to-late March.

 

You cannot expect Iran to be more interesting just as you cont expect Australia to be less sporty or India to be less colourful. The holidays and festivals depict the character of the respective nations!!

NUMBERS CAN BE CRUEL

 

Arithmetic has always been an enigma to me right from my school days. I would often wake up sweating profusely in the middle of the night with nightmares of me in a maze of numbers and looking all lost and scared or find myself standing next to the black-board, in front of my class, with my teacher breathing down my neck and I am staring blankly at many numbers to calculate and equations to solve but my mind was all numb. As if the scare of arithmetic was not enough when later it teamed up with algebra, geometry, trigonometry and statistics they became a menacing combo with the sole purpose of terrifying me. Much later, when I chose Medicine as my goal in life I realized that this fear of numbers is called Numerophobia or Arithmophobia.

 

Back in school before I even knew what anxiety was, I noticed that every time the teacher would give out a test, I would immediately get the urge to go to the bathroom. My body was trying to make me run away from it. I never understood why do I need to solve 60 equations in 60 minutes! I think it is a lot of pressure on a child of seven, eight, nine years old. And not all young minds work those problems the same way. If equations are plain and simple for some they become a panic episode for others and send them into spirals! I know many kids who can’t even read an analogue clock without panicking!

 

Numerophobia, it is often an exaggerated, constant and irrational fear of numbers that can affect one’s daily routine. Performing complex mathematical computations becomes a herculean task, with individuals stuttering and sloughing through the ups and downs of number. In fact, just the thought of doing calculations in day-to-day life could potentially escalate into a meltdown. Even at work it’s hard for me to deal with numbers and measurements. I panic when I see them. While planning research I always spend much more time with our statistician than my colleagues do, much to the amusement of our team because I take that bit extra time and effort to understand what comes naturally to most.

 

Reassuring and encouraging mentorship can help

Just like other phobias have their origin in traumatic events, the root cause of Arithmophobia might also lie in a negative experience in one’s past. Failing or doing poorly in Mathematics at school could lead to a permanent fear of numbers. Having been the subject of ridicule, being spanked, scolded, bullied for not having done well in math exam could also trigger Numerophobia. Parents might unknowingly instill the fear of numbers in children. Mathematics is considered as one of the most important subjects, with Indian parents putting undue pressure on their children to excel in the same. Unlike literature, in mathematics you cannot be almost right, it is either full marks or zero! Parents realize this and their statements like: “Mathematics is hard, you will fail if you do not study” can add stress and also cause a child to fear numbers. Effective and encouraging mentorship in the formative years can help children to come out of this fear and bring about a change in their perception. Much later in middle school I came across a teacher Mr. Birendra Shanker, who eventually succeeded in establishing an uneasy and tenuous truce between me and mathematics. The fact that a basic knowledge will suffice, children don’t have to be Srinivasa Ramanujan or Albert Einstein and there is a life beyond mathematics should be ingrained in every child whenever they exhibit the first signs of this phobia.

 

Some special Numerophobias

Do you remember a famous English Cricket umpire Mr. David Sheppard dancing on his toes and refusing to stand still with both feet firmly planted on the ground when the score reached 111 or 222 or 333? You can call it a superstition, but this is a mini phobia. Some might specifically fear numbers such as 13 (Triskaidekaphobia), 666 (Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia), or 8 (Octophobia) which are typically associated with Bad Luck, evil spirits etc. Such phobias usually have cultural or religious roots that are often aggravated by media and folklore.

Former President Ronald Reagan had the street number of his home in Bel-Air, Los Angeles, changed from 666 to 668. In Asia, 4 is considered an especially unlucky number in countries like China, Vietnam, and Japan because it is something of a homophone for the word "death" in the local languages. So hotels don’t have Room and Floor No.4 and companies like Cannon and Samsung do not have Model/Version 4!  However, the fear of 13 is the commonest. This has been linked to early Christians, and the number 13 appears in a lot of Biblical traditions. (There were 13 people at the Last Supper, for example, and Judas is said to be the 13th person to join the table.)

 

When should parents get serious about Numerophobia?

When parents experience any of these in their children it is time to get professional help:

1.      Avoidance behavior– A child with Numerophobia might cry or scream at the thought of going to school (Didaskaleinophobia). She/he is often unable to express these fears leading to wrongful diagnosis of cause of this anxiety. Adults having Arithmophobia might also try finding ways of avoiding numbers. This might affect them in their career or personal lives. Often they might be embarrassed about their problem. They might lie or cover up their inability to deal with the issue, leading to strained relationships.

2.      Anxiety attack - Some tend to fear numbers so much that it leads to a full blown anxiety attack– sweating profusely, feeling like running away or hiding, having elevated heart beat, breathing rapidly are some signs. The phobic also feels detached from reality- she/he might experience a dry mouth, feel numbness or confusion, or may be unable to express one’s thoughts clearly.

3.      Often the phobic might be able to work with numbers, but might experience deep anxiety while doing so. So self confession of help should not be ignored.

 

What is the remedy?

Neuro Linguistic programming therapy can be utilized for overcoming this phobia. This therapy helps re-programme the brain’s response to numbers and increase one’s confidence while working with them.

Gradual exposure therapy with help of a trained practitioner can also help one overcome Arithmophobia. This includes looking at numbers, thinking about them and then progressing to solving simple to complex numerical computations.

Counseling, talk therapy, anxiolytics and hypnotherapy are some other proven remedies for overcoming Numerophobia.

 

Numbers have a way of torturing you

Do you remember the dreaded report card that you had to get signed by your parents ever six months when you were in school? The numbers in them against every subject, in black, blue or God forbid, red had a terror story behind them. Those numbers had a serene truth to tell and were cruel in their infallibility! They were our performance indicators and told the story of our mastery of the subject or lack of it. They also conveyed the strength of our character – did we study regularly or only before exams? Did we choose to catch up on missed lessons or play cricket in the evenings? Were you diligently attending classes or watching Rekha and Hema Malini movies first day first show after bunking classes?

Even today when I don’t have to attend classes and all movies are freely available on YouTube numbers keep on torturing me in their new Avatar. Just like I hated report cards I hate my pathology reports. I don’t want to know my Blood Sugar, HbA1C, Serum Creatnine, LDL, HDL, VLDL, PSA but what I hate most are the numbers on my weighing scale. They only taunt me and tell me without mercy that my self control is non-existent and strength of character is near Aryabhatta’s zero! And just like my school report card these reports are a crystal ball providing a glimpse at my bleak future health. But just as I managed to dodge the former, I intend to prove the latter wrong too.

 

Numbers can hold nations hostage

Today India is celebrating because it has piped her erstwhile conqueror Great Britain and become the 5^th largest economy but when we are challenged by other numbers like per capita income, infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate and malnutrition score we have nowhere to hide. Almost every government ministry is embarrassed by the Comptroller & Auditor General every year when it submits its audit report of spending, revenue collections or aid/grant received by them. The stock market swings between bulls and bears depending upon the numbers depicting stock prices. Even the meteorologists, environmentologists and space scientists scare us with numbers.

Numbers are necessary evils. They grade us, they guide us and they show us our path of progress but no one can deny that they are scary!