Playing Cupid in the Age of Technology (Part 1)
Valentine Stories: For Profit and Not For Profit
Frangipani: Picture taken in Fiji
For some reference click here to read previous post
Spring and Love
Spring is love. Spring is hope.
Spring is nature’s smile after a long slumber.
No wonder festivals of love are related to spring.
In India Holi, the spring festival of Colors, was associated with music, dance and love. It was also called Kamotsav—the festival of Kama, the God of Love.
Once again Bollywood cashes on this festival. There are many more songs based on this festival than any other Hindu festival.
Just type ‘Holi Songs, Bollywood’ in YouTube and watch an endless list of songs emerge.
Technically, Kamotsav was the Indian festival of love. Believe it or not, its been in Indian history since the time of Krishna (thousands of years). It continues today as ‘Holi’, one of the most loved festivals by the young. There was no commercialization associated with it. All you needed was color, which was available for a small price or free if you made your own from soaking spring flowers in water.
Commodification of Emotions: Commercialization, Economic liberalization & the Internet
Holi a national holiday in India, so families can enjoy together. When we were children, the entire neighborhood was alive with laughter and ready with gulal (color-powder) and water balloons. After the celebrations, which lasted a good part of the day, the evening was spent in feasting with the entire neighborhood.
Valentine’s day is primarily commercial.
Commodification of emotions, as it is called in academic language. It’s not a national holiday. Gifts, restaurants, trips and travel associated with the day. Businesses know it well and encourage consumption. It the businesses who play cupid, and benefit in return.
In the previous post I mentioned economic liberalization of India and its connection to celebration of Valentine’s Day.1
Economic liberalization allowed foreign goods into the country. Until then foreign goods, media--books, magazines, movies, newspapers, were all rare. They were not banned per se --just heavily taxed or had limited distribution. Keep in mind, India even today, has one of the largest media industries in the world. Beginning 1990s Indian markets were flooded with non-Indian goods, including the re-entry of Coca-Cola and first time entry of Pepsi.2
Along with goods came foreign ideas related to life and festivals that had no historical evidence. For example, valentine’s day along with mother and Father’s Day were introduced and promoted in India.
None of these days were marked in the country before 19913.
Remember, it's a market of over 1.4 billion people. In the 1990s itself the population of India was approaching a billion. These three holidays then started to find place on Indian television, movies, and TV shows. It was not a surprise that businesses caught up within a few years and now prepare consumers in anticipation.
Even house plants can feel the spring in their bones
All of these, as my professor in the US said, are ‘Hallmark-holidays’. Meaning they are marked on a Sunday (with the exception of Valentine’s day), so no one gets a day off to be with their mother, or father or beloved. Instead, such holidays boost economy because invariably people loosen their wallets for gifts.
It is the commodification aspect that is the bone of contention. If we really care for families and communities, these days could be turned into long weekends.
When Valentine’s day arrived in India in the 1990s, first came the resistance in the form of violence.
In a country that gave the world Kamasutra shops selling valentine’s day goodies were vandalized, young people celebrating the holiday were harassed. While violence should never be the response, commercialization does dilute and distract from the real celebration.
The purpose of Hallmark-holidays is to boost the economy.
Sales of flowers, cards and chocolates go up during the month of February.
Internet adds another dimension of eliminating distance and fast delivery.
So, even with the distance gifts are expected.
Think of the power of words! They are a great force in higher philosophy as well as in common life. Day and night we manipulate this force without thought and without inquiry. —Swami Vivekananda
Alternatives to Valentine’s Day
Wiki says that in India there have been two attempts at replacing Valentine’s Day celebration with more ‘culturally appropriate’ celebrations.
First was the hilarious ‘Cow Hug Day’ instead of valentine’s day, which bombed. Thankfully, no one followed it. But in 2012 it was recommended that rather than protest Valentine’s Day celebrations, February 14th should be celebrated as ‘Parents Worship Day.”4 Quite like how paganism was removed.
Replace what you want to remove with what you want to continue.
Apparently for a decade now, one state of India (not all of India) celebrates February 14 as Parents Worship Day.
Parents are invited to schools of their children and thanked for raising their children.
I can live with that.
In every winter's heart there is a quivering spring, and behind the veil of each night there is a shining dawn. Khalil Gibran
The pushback is against the imposed commercialization. In fact, the same goes for other festivals like Halloween, which are not as widely celebrated in Europe anymore as they are in the US. Presently, Halloween is being introduced in India where it makes ZERO sense. Black Friday, which was associated with Thanksgiving, a very North American holiday, is a global phenomenon now. That is how cultural schizophrenia is created by corporations5.
How often have you seen something like Nowruz6, an Iranian celebration of March equinox being internationalized? Or at least popularized in northern hemisphere where it would seem to fit and coincide with Easter?
Why can Midsummer not be transported say to Alaska or New Hamshire or Pennsylvania, like Black Friday? Midsummer smells of pagannism, and is a celebration of a collective identity.
If winter should say, 'Spring is in my heart,' who would believe winter?
Khalil Gibran
Black Friday is a day marked where we all rub our hands to get the best deals.
It’s celebration by consumption.
Nowruz is a community festival and is celebrated by dancing around a bonfire and eating good food. It is easier to commodify festivals that are celebrated in small units, where individuality can be asserted.
For that reason, Midsummer is not commodified as much as Christmas is. Because it cannot be commercialized and is rooted in regional identity Midsummer is restricted to Scandinavia, even though all countries in the northern hemisphere expereince a spike in daylight during summer.
In the next post, I will share two stories that talk about simplicity of love and how if love is a priority, technology becomes a medium and not just a gift or a tool to capture the moment (selfies and videos).
Yes, the stories are from the before we started using ultra convenient iPhones.
Read the follow up post with stories: click here
Don’t know the name of the flower: Picture taken in Sweden
This topic deserves a blogpost of its own.
Even today some countries such as Bhutan do not allow non-Bhutanese films in their theaters. You can watch them on your own time and extra money but the government does not support it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parents%27_Worship_Day
I am aware that the academic term cultural schizophrenia means something different. In this case I taking celebrations and festivals out of their context and planting them in other countries, solely for profit or long term cultural influence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowruz