How Do Different Cultures Celebrate Hope?

Hope has long been celebrated all around the world. Through festivals across hundreds of cultures, communities come together to transform hardship into symbols of endurance and joy. These traditions - from India’s Diwali to Jewish Hanukkah and Hong Kong’s Chinese New Year - offer more than just a few days' experience; they embody resilience, turning tales of struggle into feats of strength. Each festival reveals how hope emerges from adversity, much like a candle’s light piercing the darkest night.

To start off with, let’s talk about Diwali. 

Diwali is India’s most vibrant expression of triumph. Known as the ‘Festival of Lights’, it commemorates Lord Rama’s return from exile after defeating the demon king Ravana, a victory of good over the darkest evil. Families light Diyas (small clay lamps filled with oil) and line their homes with them to welcome Goddess Lakshmi (Bearer of prosperity and good fortune). Rangoli patterns (An Indian art form made with powdered colours and other materials) adorn entrances of houses, firecrackers ward off shadows, and sweets like ladoos - balls of pure yumminess - unite families. Beneath the revelry lies a message: even after losses, hope will always guide you home.

To Israel we go!

Hanukkah carries a similar narrative of endurance. Our story starts in the 2nd century BCE, during the Maccabean Revolt against Seleucid enemies who destroyed and shamed Jerusalem's Temple. After reclaiming it, priests found only enough pure oil to light the menorah for a single day (That’s not good at all!) but somehow, against all odds, it burned for 8 days and nights, symbolizing divine faith amid despair. Families kindle the menorah, a nine branched cable holder, and light one new candle every night until all nine are blazing, representing growing hope. Potato pancakes (Latkes), doughnuts and chocolate coins are eaten to satisfy everyone’s hunger, and dreidel games (spinning tops inscribed with letters), add a fun twist to the celebration. Far from simple play, these rituals affirm light's power to defy extinction, sustaining Jewish faith through centuries of persecution and exile.

Hong Kong is here!

In Hong Kong, Chinese New Year - like the recent Year of the Snake - unfurls in a thunderous renewal. Dragon dances symbolize power over chaos, red lanterns and festivities, such as the Victoria Harbour fireworks display, usher in a new year, filled with prosperity, joy and happiness. Reunion dinners feature whole fish for surplus, dumplings as wealth pouches, and Lai Xi for blessings. CNY channels hope into harmony, binding families against misfortune. 

These festivals prove something, no matter where you are in the world, no matter what danger you are facing, whether exile, oppression or famine, hope always remains in our hearts. All around us, it channels the best in us and brings people together. Hope reminds us that even in the darkness, light will always shine.

New Year's Resolutions, Do They Work?

And we’re back to January, to the debut of a new and fulfilled year. Christmas music has finally stopped playing in stores, the wave of “since last year” jokes have passed, and the smell of something fresh starts to linger in the air. 

Yet all our minds ask ourselves the same question: how will this year differ, or hopefully be better, than the last? Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you my article : New Year's Resolutions, do they work?

Every year, my resolutions always prowl in the back of my mind until December, when they jump out and laugh at my unchanged self. Truth be told, my goals always seem too much, unclear or just too inhumane. I know I’m not the only one –  I know you haven’t actually committed to going to the gym everyday, what with school and just life happening.

Speaking of gyms, there’s always a huge increase in gym subscriptions towards the start of January, a boom that usually barely lasts a month. That’s crazy, isn’t it?

Resolutions are helpful because they guide us towards having a direction in our lives, an objective we can work towards. “The real task is, in fact, to be objective toward oneself and subjective toward all others” affirms Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. In order to change yourself, you should set yourself objectives and ignore others. Personalise your goals, rather than drifting around. 

Having a linear goal is simple and straightforward : you follow the rules, and you get the reward. Nonetheless, easier said than done. Nearly 80% of all New Year Resolutions fail by February! Only a mere 9% make it through every year. 

Take me for instance ; my New Year’s resolution is to have a longer attention span. Google says the best time to work is between 4-7am. I want to be fully focused on what I do, never leave any work unfinished, fully ‘lock in’ until I have finished every single one of–

I forgot my point. I googled an article and ended up watching the entire ‘His&Hers’ series. Never mind that. 

But at what point are any of my goals actually realistic, or clear? I don’t know how I’ll resolve my attention span, and contradict me if you can, but there’s no way anyone can willingly wake up at 3am every day. 

On one hand, it might seem extreme to determine who you must be by the first of January. John Kaag, American philosopher certainly thinks so. He says “Making resolutions and self-deception go hand in hand.” For him, by conforming yourself to one idea of yourself, you’re closing up all possibilities of who you could possibly be. Whether it be of all natural human changes, if you don’t follow that perception, you begin to feel guilty. Ultimately, you will start acting inauthentically and feel trapped. 

Research conducted by neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff, PhD confirms this theory. Life rarely bends towards people’s plans, which explains why people repeat their same resolutions every year over and over again. 

That isn’t to say you shouldn’t try to improve yourself. Don’t take this as a sign to walk up to your mom and tell her that you shouldn’t clean your room because that wouldn’t be your authentic self. Instead, you should refine your resolutions so that they are simple and clear. 

“Resolutions typically confuse the immediate for the truly important,” says Kaag. “They go after the most apparent but also the most superficial of things.” 

Instead, we should focus on small goals that don’t seem like much, but are attainable. 

Le Cunff recommends the following formula : “I will [do X action] for [Y duration]”. Personally, I would suggest to follow whatever action you choose for 66 days (2 months). According to studies, that’s how long it takes for a new habit to become familiar. 

This technique is “purposeful, actionable, continuous and trackable.”, or if any of you are familiar with it, SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound). Little tip : don’t tell people about your goal until you actually accomplish it. You’ll get that dopamine hit of compliments before you've even achieved it, potentially de-motivating you. 

And resolutions aren’t exams - they don’t base themselves on a ‘pass or fail’ mentality. If you lose your streak, what’s stopping you from re-starting? The importance is to keep trying, no matter how many times it takes. Careful not to overload either. Stick to three resolutions maximum, as not to burn out quickly. 

But looking back at everything said, who knows if any of these techniques work or not? Am I sure that SMARTs work? I admit to you, reader, that I’m as much in the dark as you are. Only time will tell, as they say. We can only hope for the better. 

Sources:

The philosophical reasons to give up on New Year’s resolutions - by Olivia Goldhill, Updated July 21, 2022, on Quartz 

New Year's resolutions rarely work, neuroscientist says: Try this smarter method 

Why We Don't Do New Year's Resolutions (And What We Do Instead) 

Why your New Year’s resolution to go to the gym will fail 

How Long Does it Actually Take to Form a New Habit? (Backed by Science)

Why Do So Many Religions Have Flood Stories?

In a Hindu myth, the god Vishnu reincarnates himself as a fish so he can warn Manu, the first man, of a great flood. He tells Manu to build a boat, which he guides to safety on a mountain.

In a Greek myth, Zeus, the king of the gods, floods the world to end the corrupt Bronze Age. But Prometheus, the god of foresight, warns his son Deucalion, and he and his wife Pyrrha survive in a chest, and repopulate the earth.

In the story of Noah’s ark, God tells Noah to build an ark to survive a flood that would cleanse the earth, saving only Noah, Noah’s family, and the animals.

And there are multiple similar myths in many Native American cultures.

Flood myths are nearly universal, appearing in a huge number of religions. But why? Why are there such similar stories in so many different cultures?

There are many explanations for this. Early civilizations thrived in river valleys (the Tigris/Euphrates, Indus, Nile), where floods were frequent, terrifying events that wiped out communities and resources, making them powerful historical memories. When the last Ice Age ended, melting glaciers caused sea levels to rise, submerging coastal areas and forcing migration. Some myths might be similar to others because of stories spreading through trade and migration. And some myths might stem from catastrophic events like massive tsunamis caused by asteroid impacts, volcanic eruptions, or intense, localised flooding that seemed world-ending.

Archaeologist Bruce Masse believes that some of these flood myths stem from a meteor/comet that crashed into the Indian Ocean during a solar eclipse between 3000 and 2800 BCE, which created the 29 km undersea Burckle Crater and a giant tsunami that flooded coastal lands. To back up his theory, he analysed 175 myths, including a Hindu myth saying that the five planets were aligned during the flood, and a Chinese story linking the flood to the end of the reign of Empress Nu Wa.

The historian Adrienne Mayor believes that global flood myths were inspired by observations of seashells and fish fossils on mountain tops, discoveries of which the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians all documented. In fact, the Greeks believed that the Earth had been covered by water many times, using these fossils as evidence.

And then there’s another, more questionable theory, that says that myths resemble each other because - on a subconscious level - every human brain makes sense of the world in the same way.

This theory was popularised by Carl Jung. As Robert Segal writes in his book Theorising about Myth, “Humans… must already have the idea of god within their minds and can only be projecting the idea onto vegetation and other natural phenomena they observe." He theorises that using gods and spirits to represent things like rising tides would have been too big a leap for primitive humans.

But what if the true explanation is something else entirely?

Floods symbolise chaos and destruction. But they also symbolise purification and societal change. These myths don’t just all include floods - they all include people surviving from floods, and in many of them, making the world a better place. These myths symbolise the hope that all humans have inside them, the hope that things will be better.

In that Greek myth, Zeus flooded the world because humans were warring too much.

In the Old Testament, the reason Noah built his ark is that Yahweh wanted to end the corrupted state of mankind.

And in all of these flood myths, a god warns a good person about the flood, that good person survives the flood, and they repopulate the Earth, starting a new, better age.

When bad things happen, humans always hope. They create fantasies in their heads, hoping that something good will happen and take them out of their misery, and bring them to a better world. And sometimes things do get better, and sometimes they don’t. But it doesn’t matter. 

These myths about floods - no, myths about surviving floods - aren’t just universal because floods are common. They’re universal because they have a deeper meaning.

Humans always hope.

Sources:

https://bigthink.com/high-culture/flood-myth-origin/

https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/a-flood-of-myths-and-stories/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth