IELTS Essay Question:

Most people have forgotten the meaning behind traditional or religious festivals; during festival periods, people nowadays only want to enjoy themselves.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

Answer:

Festival celebrations offer a glimpse into past generation’s traditions, faiths and culture. While some people religiously celebrated the occasions with love ones, others, however celebrated the festivities all by themselves. While I agree with the latter decision to be alone during those moments, I would not necessarily go along with their overall view of the celebration. 

To begin with, a festival is a significant way to teach and show to young generations about a certain traditions, customs and beliefs that could be impart onto next generations. The main objectives of such celebration is to build social cohesion to enrich family and community’s relations while indulging in fun filled activities. Christians for example, they celebrated Christmas to remember the birth of child Jesus Christ and is considered sacred religious activity. This holiday is synonymous with traditions of everything from popular customs such as giving gifts, attending mid-night mass and decorating Christmas trees. Festival is indeed a great opportunity to bring relatives together to strengthen ties and preserve the tradition, religion and cultural identity of a place. 

In contrast, some people seems gradually forgotten the religious meaning and cultural specific significance of the festivals. As time went on, other people look at holidays as just a social construct designed to drive sales and they rather spend and enjoy the holidays alone. Although, I agree with this view, however, majority of people still celebrated festivals sacredly. After all, the core purpose of festivals is to motivate human being to be better people, to forget all worries and bring out positivity to the world.

To sump up, festivals contributed immensely in uniting the family and the mass. Although, others slowly unremembered the real meaning of some occasions. However, celebrating festival is still a great opportunity to give people a reason to smile, connect with love ones and to celebrate the positive side of life. 

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