19 October 2009

Living in Asia has become a much more multicultural experience for many, myself included.
I say this because in recent years I get many reminders from friends and even the media, when major festivals such as RAMADAN, the Muslim month of fasting (for similar purposes as Catholics observe Lent), or in today's case, the Hindu festival of lights - DIWALI FESTIVAL rolls around.

But not just in Asia, after all in the U.S., there's the annual addition of KWANZAA a relatively recent addition to the pantheon of celebrations, this one honoring African and African-American heritage.

This keeps us very busy, between having a day for EVERYTHING - from WORLD FOOD DAY, to WORLD ANIMAL DAY, to WORLD COPYRIGHT DAY, BOSSES' DAY, SECRETARIES DAY, LABOR DAY, COLUMBUS DAY, NATIONAL DAY, INDEPENDENCE DAY, WORLD PEACE DAY, ENVIRONMENT DAY, etc etc, to having observances of every religion and ethnicity marked into our calendars.

Is this a good thing, is multiculturalism a unifying force, or is it a dangerous fragmentation of the human race that will more likely lead us to continued conflict? The answer remains to be seen, and in many ways, depends on the intentions, motivations, ambitions and therefore - the agendas - of the various leaders of those communities, but one thing is clear, it does offer a commentary on how we ("Humankind") have come to have so little faith in ourselves "to do the right thing" that we need to annoint special days to remind ourselves to be 'kind to animals', 'live in peace' 'appreciate the people around us', 'abide by laws', and 'not kill each other -or- otherwise 'annihilate the world with man-made weapons'!

Has anyone stepped back and looked at this world we've created!
A world where there is no honor, where we only learn to 'assign' blame onto others, 'pressure' them with numbers, and teach our kids that we don't need to abide by laws if they don't suit our purposes.

Let's hope the significance of DIWALI touches each one of us, so that even while we celebrate our differences, we will have the wisdom to always choose the path of light and illumination.

DIWALI Website

Official Website of KWANZAA

Humorous Q&A about RAMADAN

Margaret Chen
Editor in chief
iCUBED.us