Holidays, which are a means for us to come together with our loved ones, create an important opportunity to see our family and relatives, whom we neglect, especially in the hustle and bustle of big cities. Stating that holiday visits take us out of routine habits, experts note that spending time with loved ones is good for mental health. According to experts, holidays help to create unity of feeling, thought, joy, discourse and action in people. Holidays reduce selfishness, self-interest, divisiveness and discord and increase the feeling of love, respect, peace, brotherhood, happiness and sharing.
Üsküdar University NPISTANBUL Hospital Specialist Psychologist İhsan Öztekin said that holidays, which have an important place in our culture, also have positive effects on mental health.
The concept of family weakens, the individual becomes lonely
Stating that holidays are needed more in a period when the individual is getting lonelier day by day, Specialist Psychologist İhsan Öztekin said, "In a period when social changes in our country and in the world continue in a dizzying manner and it becomes difficult to follow technological developments, we see that the concept of holidays and the concept of feasting are also in change. We are in a period where ruthless wars, injustice, primitive and inhuman behaviors that destroy human values are spreading, and the strong oppress the weak with unlimited brutality. On the other hand, we are in a period in which individualization comes to the fore, individualism increases, the concept of family is gradually weakening and people are becoming increasingly lonely."
We need the unifying feature of holidays
Expert Psychologist İhsan Öztekin continued as follows: "Middle-aged and pre-middle-aged generations, who have lived and known in the past that traditional holidays emphasize human values and cooperation, can see that we need this unifying, love and tolerance feature of holidays more today. Families and parents with this awareness make efforts to ensure that their children continue the holiday traditions and try to keep them alive and pass them on to the next generations."
Moving away from rituals
Stating that holidays, which have an important place and positive contributions in the social, cultural and historical structuring of the society, continue to maintain this feature, albeit with changes, Expert Psychologist İhsan Öztekin said, "However, especially in big cities, the tendency to move away from the traditional structure and rituals of the holiday and to spend the holiday period in holiday resorts is increasing. Although the discourse of 'Where are the old holidays' expresses that the same excitement, enthusiasm and joy are not experienced in today's holidays, it has also become a discourse of adults from past to present generations because it expresses the longing for the happy days of our childhood."
Holidays reduce selfishness and increase the sense of sharing
İhsan Öztekin noted that holidays help to create unity of feeling, thought, joy, discourse and action in people and said, "It gives the pleasure and happiness of having common values and being together. Holidays are the moments when being a human being and being a society in unity and integrity are embodied in flesh and bones. With this feature, holidays reduce selfishness, self-interest, divisiveness and discord in people and increase the sense of love, respect, peace, brotherhood, happiness and sharing."
A short break from the exhaustion of life
Öztekin stated that the visits and feasts during the holidays are instrumental in the elimination of resentments and resentments and said, "Thus, we have the opportunity to breathe an emotional and spiritual air by celebrating face to face with our relatives whom we cannot take care of much during the year, whom we neglect, with whom we can only communicate. It also gives us the opportunity to breathe in the exhaustion and stress of life, and to question life and the mortality of life."
Stating that Eid visits are a useful activity that takes the brain and soul away from the usual emotions and thoughts for a short time by being with the people they love, hugging them, going out of the daily routine, İhsan Öztekin said that being with our loved ones not only makes us happy, but also secretes many hormones that are beneficial for our health.