A few terms are misunderstood or used interchangeably, which can be quite justifiable to an extent, but they are not the same. For example, festivals and celebrations are both celebrated to express happiness or for enjoyment.
Both are celebrated with their loved ones (friends, relatives, families). Due to all of these reasons, many people get confused between them, and they can be similar in some cases (as festivals can be considered as celebrations but not vice versa) but not the same.
It is important to understand how they can be differentiated, and for that, the following differences are important to know.
Key Takeaways
- Festivals are large-scale, organized events with cultural or religious significance.
- Celebrations can be small or large gatherings marking personal or communal achievements or milestones.
- Festivals and celebrations foster unity and social bonding, featuring music, food, and entertainment.
Festival vs Celebration
A Festival is an occasion celebrated for different reasons that can be sentimental, cultural or religious, and it is a public occasion. Celebration means to celebrate or to feel joyful with others, and it includes occasions, festivals, events, and more, including two people or an entire country.
A Festival is an occasion celebrated for some sentimental, religious, or cultural reasons. On festivals, it is national and local holidays in different states or countries. It is a public occasion celebrated by several people together.
There are specific things that are done at a festival. It can be dressing up, cooking, or anything. There is always a reason and meaning behind every festival to be celebrated. Examples of some festivals are Diwali, Holi, Raksha Bandhan, Etc.
Celebration is a term derived from the word celebrate. This means to enjoy, feel joyful or just celebrate with friends and be friendly.
It is a broader term that includes occasions, important events, festivals, etc. It can be done in two people or as a whole country, meaning they can be both public and private. It is not important to celebrate for a particular reason; it can be done just to lift the mood of a person.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | Festival | Celebration |
|---|---|---|
| Event | Comparatively less broad | Broader |
| Type | Public occasion | It can be both public and private |
| Reason | Specific | May or may not be specific |
| Planning | Planned from earlier | Planned when some achievement or other things happen |
| Related to | Custom, tradition, or religious reasons. | Any occasion such as victory, custom, achievement, etc. |
What is Festival?
Following are the reasons to celebrate festivals:
- Create Harmony: Festivals bring harmony to the busy and hectic life of a person. Harmony is important to keep the patient and mental peace, as in the absence of it, the human brain won’t function normally.
- Spread Friendliness and Faith: When people come together to celebrate a festival, it spreads and brings friendliness among them, they dance together, eat together, etc., and all this friendliness also creates faith among all of them.
- Economic Development: Indirectly celebrating festivals can also contribute to economic development. For example, when you buy things or stuff to celebrate a specific festival, it contributes to the growth of the economy.
Different countries, religions, and customs have different festivals that are based on some incident or on some values. They represent the values of society.
It is important to make children understand the religious and other values of their festivals as it builds strong character. For example, Diwali is a festival celebrated in India. It is a festival of light that teaches the importance of light in darkness.
What is Celebration?
Following are some of the reasons or occasion that is celebrated worldwide by people:
- National Holidays: There are some national holidays in countries; these are celebrated to remember the incident on what the holidays are celebrated, for example, Founder’s Day, Independence Day, etc.
- Festivals: These are the most celebrated occasions; they are different in different countries, while some of them are celebrated worldwide, for example, Christmas and New Year. Festivals like Holi or Easter are mainly celebrated in their particular countries.
- Victories or Achievements: any little or big victories or achievements are also celebrated to make the moment memorable and share the happiness with others, some of them are celebrated with friends while some are celebrated in the whole nation, for example, when Indian cricket won the match.
- Birthdays and Anniversaries: They are also among the most celebrated occasions worldwide. Every person celebrates their birthday and anniversary with their loved ones every year to count the blessings and memories they have earned.
- Other Occasions: there are other little occasions that are celebrated, for example, when a person buys a house or car.
Main Differences Between Festival and Celebration
- Suppose festivals and celebrations are compared. Celebration is a broader term, and the festival is relatively less broad. For example, the celebration is used for an event or occasion that needs to be celebrated for any reason. It also includes festivals as it is an event of happiness and joyfulness, while the festival is a type of celebration due to some reason.
- Both of them can be of different types, and the festival is mostly a public occasion such as people from a particular place or with anything common such as religion, custom, etc. celebrate together their common festival whereas celebration can be both public or private, such a celebration of something national or more common such as festival is public while some achievement or victory of a person is a private celebration.
- They can be differentiated on the basis of reason. The festival is celebrated for specific reasons on specific dates. They can be due to religion, custom, tradition, etc. While celebration may or may not be for specific reasons, it can be for immediate reasons, sudden victories, achievement (not specific), or birthdays, anniversaries (for specific reasons).
- Compared in terms of planning, festivals come on specific dates and therefore planning is started earlier from months, people plan several things such as place, dress, etc. that are decided or fixed every time whereas celebrations are not fixed or planned for a longer period, it can be due to some immediate or sudden reason.
- Festivals are celebrated every year on the same date for the same reasons they can be sentimental, emotional, religious, traditional, etc. whereas celebrations can be celebrated on a fixed date or different dates, for example, birthdays and anniversaries are celebrated every year on the same date, they are celebrations but not festivals.
- https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=208086
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10548408.2017.1350618
- https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.17104/1611-8944_2006_1_60
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/26300892
- https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1974444
Last Updated : 08 September, 2023
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Chara Yadav holds MBA in Finance. Her goal is to simplify finance-related topics. She has worked in finance for about 25 years. She has held multiple finance and banking classes for business schools and communities. Read more at her bio page.
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