Why do we GIFT?
Why do we GIFT?
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Gifts. I am sure all of us love them.
Birthdays, anniversaries, Farewells, festivals, there is gift for every event, every occasion and every special moment in life. Or is it like gift makes even an ordinary moment a special one?
Have you ever been confused whether to gift something or not?
I have been confused many times. And then I asked the question, why do we gift at all? I mean, not at a particular moment but anytime. Why do we gift in the first place? I am sure it does not change anything drastically then why do we have gifts for every event in life?
I did a little research and a little brainstorming over the subject and would like to share my thoughts with you.
Gift giving has been part of human culture for thousand of years. But I will not not get into the history here. I will try to focus on the reason behind it and how it affects the recipient as well as the giver.
As I see, in today’s world, may a times, gifting seems to be some kind of custom or a tradition. Very often we feel socially obliged to gift. If say someone has presented me a gift on my birthday or my marriage anniversary then it feels like a debt which needs to be re-payed. It feels like I have to gift the person just because he/she has gifted me at some time. Even we pay attention to the value of the gift as well.
However, in the past, There were reasons why these tradition were created. For example gifting a newly wed couple made a lot of sense, as different gifts from various people would help the couple to comfortably start a new life, set up a new home. So it was kind of a community support program then but eventually it became custom where the original relevance was forgotten, and today when most of the wedding couples are already well settled, gifting is a customary requirement for many.
But beyond all of this, gifting also has a very special place in our culture, It has a very deep symbolic meaning. Away from all the customary and traditional needs, I think there are very fundamental reasons behind gifting:
"Gift is a actually language beyond words”
"Gift is a actually language beyond words”
In true sense, It helps us express our feelings for the person we are gifting. It helps us to strengthen our ties with our fellow beings. It conveys the very important message that their existence matter in our life.
In this world we give gift for many reasons:-
We give gift to show people that we are grateful to them and value the role that they play in our life. A thoughtful gift relating to person’s nature or interests conveys our genuine appreciation for them.
To our near and dear ones, gift is a way of expressing our love for them.
Many a times gifts are to celebrate one’s personal accomplishment, some important milestones in life like passing of an important exam, winning of a sports competition or joining the first job of the career. Gifts on such occasions, make the recipient realize the importance of their achievement and encourages them to continue their efforts.
Exchanging gifts on particular festivals helps us show cultural understanding towards each other. It helps express the respect for every culture in the society and thus strengthen the human to human bond for a better society.
Also, Gifting is not limited to personal relation sphere but it plays an important role even in the professional world. Be it a joining gift for an employee by the company or gifts exchanged between people of different organizations during business dealings, they help express the value and respect the relation and strengthen them.
As a receiver I also sometime deny accepting gifts, primarily not believing in materialistic values or for some professional reasons but now I have realized that in this process of gifting its the feelings of the gift-giver which are important than the gift itself.
But as every other phenomenon in the world, I have found a flip side to Gifting as well.
In present time, the material value of gifting has become more important than its emotional value. Often we judge the gift and its giver by its cost and not by the feelings attached. At the same time, gifting has not just become tradition but also a mean to influence people for personal or professional gains and in such scenarios I feel there remains a very fine line between gift and bribe.
But I feel, gifting in its true sense, is a wonderful way of expressing our feelings, love, joy, affection, appreciation and thought-fullness towards the each other.
We must remember that irrespective of small or big, tangible or intangible, cheap or costly, fancy or simple, our gifts will definitely make a face smile and I think this is reason enough to gift someone.
Also I believe there is no perfect gift rather every gift is perfect if the intention is genuine and also the best time for the gift is when it is not expected.
Let me know what do you think but whatever it is keep gifting :)
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