Celebration is a fun part of living life. We celebrate our birthdays, holidays, and exciting life events like promotions and pregnancies. Some people stop there when it comes to celebrations, but others choose to celebrate events that are probably less important than others—think promposals, gender reveals, and pet gotcha days and birthdays.
Although these events can bring some spice to everyday life, it makes it harder to draw the line between celebration and spectacle. Not only that, but these simple announcements of boy or girl have quickly become spectacular events with sometimes dangerous consequences.
People magazine published an article sharing gender reveal parties that took a tragic turn, including one that caused a wildfire that spread throughout Northern California and took 25 lives.
According to an article by The Atlantic, gender reveal celebrations are on the rise in recent years. The celebration was popularized during the 90s and has increased as a result of social media pressures. Each year, more and more expecting families host gender reveals as a way to share their pregnancy milestone with their family.
Alia Wong, The Atlantic article’s author, attributes these increased celebrations to globalization and the rise of social media pressures. Many multicultural families are spread across the world and having several celebrations allows them to be a part of the celebration even if they can’t be there for the main event.
However, over-celebration doesn’t just apply to pregnancy and gender reveals. Wong also considers weddings in her article, which are celebrated with not just the wedding ceremony, but with an engagement party, bridal shower, bachelor and bachelorette party (which are more often becoming destination trips), and a post-wedding reception.
The numerous events involved with weddings are expensive, especially for traveling family members, and increase gift-giving anxiety. Although these many milestone events are celebrated to create a memorable experience for the bride and groom, they put a lot of stress on everyone involved, and that goes for all instances of over-celebration.
Celebration is fun and exciting, but I think it is near impossible to make everyday fun and exciting. Not everyday is meant to be a celebration––some days are harder than others and that is the hard truth that modern society doesn’t want to recognize.
From my perspective, over-celebration dampens the true celebration by making us go through many roadblocks on the way.
Don’t get me wrong, I love giving gifts and celebrating with people, but it all begins to blend together when every weekend is a party or celebration of some sort. Instead, going forward I want to celebrate the big moments with my family and friends and celebrate the smaller with my inner-circle.
Prior to the rise of social media, these smaller events like pet birthdays and promposals were celebrated with small groups rather than the entire world via social media. Although it may not earn points for spectacle, I want to continue celebrating these little moments with those I’m closest with in genuine ways.
Rather than spend twenty minutes finding the best backdrop for an Instagram-perfect pic, I want to spend those twenty minutes enjoying the privacy of a private celebration. Maybe I’ll snap a quick picture as a memory, but without the pressures of social media, I’ll remember the genuine laughter, tears, or sentiments shared rather than the painstaking pressure to post a picture for the world to see.
I still want to celebrate life events that are important to me––birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries––alongside events that are less significant––pet birthdays and promotions––but I want to do so with a genuine heart.
I look forward to the day I can call my parents and grandparents to tell them I’m engaged, married, or pregnant. Social media will know eventually, but I want to revel in those personal connections before I announce it to the world.
Going forth, I want to be more genuine with my celebrations by celebrating them because they’re special to me––not because social media tells me to.