Without holidays, time is a long way towards exhaustion!
2025-12-06 17:31:33
TiranaPost
By Manjola Lloja Bushati/ Officially in December, and for many of us, officially in a period that carries the burdens and joys of the holidays.
Allow me to make a brief and somewhat more theoretical introduction (a sociology paragraph, just for an aperitif:)
Referring to both world experiences and the sayings of wise people known to humanity, holidays and ceremonies to celebrate them, the customs or rituals that we follow, play an essential role in the life of communities. They are the right way to carry forward traditions and enable us to experience a common identity. As Michael J. Sandel (a researcher of philosophy) says, “Rites and celebrations remind us that we are more than individuals; we are part of a moral community.” Holidays create emotions that last a long time, reinforcing human bonds, an idea that the writer Maya Angelou beautifully summarizes: “People will forget what you said… but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
In essence, experiencing festivals is the most natural way in which culture comes alive. As the Dutch scholar of the last century, Johan Huizinga, emphasized: “A festival is the moment when culture reveals itself.” For communities with deep roots, celebration is also an expression of their inner strength, as the Czech writer and former president Václav Havel observed, while Camus (the French writer from whom I dared to take the title of this note) reminds us that, without festivals, time would simply be a path to boredom.
I have summarized these perspectives of well-known personalities in this way because I want to show that celebrating the holidays is not simply an act that pleases the "child within us" or only children. Over time, scholars and artists have shown us that experiencing the holidays is not an ordinary social activity, but a powerful mechanism that produces meaning, connection, and collective well-being.
In principle, I think we agree.
But...there's always a but in my writings.
Burdened with work or the lack thereof, tired of thoughts that we often pour out on each other in the form of complaints, without trying to find a solution, often without motivation or "satisfied"...we adults are turning the holidays into "a chore to get done."
Here I am now telling you some situations where I was personally present during this week on the eve of celebrations:
Some work colleagues who "get carried away" about the collective holiday, some teachers who repeat without hesitation how lazy they are to deal with the children's holiday, because they are tired of the November celebrations... some other adults who define their annoyance with the holidays as "a period that everyone wastes", or some others who stress about having to close 100 things before the holidays, as if the holidays are an unforeseen emergency that happens to them unexpectedly. Then there are a large number who somehow justify this whole festive fuss with the expression "for the sake of the children".
Of course, there are plenty of others who experience it with joy, but I'm okay with them. I just hope we become more like that, which is why I write.
Well, dear adults, holidays are not work, nor an obligation, nor a need for unaccounted for or impossible expenses.
We cannot teach children to enjoy themselves if we do not enjoy ourselves.
Holidays are an invitation to enjoy the good we have, or the bad we don't have, to come together, to share with others...I could go on like this for a long time. But I am afraid to say that we cannot love, give, or make others happy, even our own children, without loving, giving, or making ourselves happy!
Above all, holidays are a way to ignite and keep the light alive within us. The light for hope, for health, for the life that comes only once, for ourselves!
This December, we should stop for a moment and rejoice in ourselves. Let us surround with our hands the little light within us, which does not fade away while we are still alive, even when everything seems dark, and help it grow.
The more we "light up" ourselves, internally, the more we can light up the lives of those we love, especially our children!
