Festive celebrations offer students lessons that extend from campus life to the world around them. Sharing traditions and organising events can build cultural understanding, confidence and cooperation, while observing the season’s buying, selling and exchange opens up questions about business, technology and livelihoods. For educators at Jaipuria Group of Educational Institutions, BIT Mesra and Shoolini University, festivals offer an opportunity to connect participation with curiosity, encouraging students to understand both the communities they belong to and the changes shaping them.
Harish Sanduja, Director Schools, Jaipuria Group of Educational Institutions, said, “Festivals are a social catalyst in bringing people closer and enhancing the circulation of money into a society at various levels. Some festivals are religion-based while others are observed to celebrate relationships, such as Mothers’ Day or Raksha Bandhan. Religion and relationships bring people together during the festival season in a spirit of celebration of our traditions, customs and beliefs. All festivals enhance people-to-people ties, provide an opportunity to build values and culture into the next generation. Overall, festivals enhance the EQ of society.”
This emphasis on relationships and cultural continuity also finds a practical expression on campus. Planning celebrations can give students opportunities to collaborate, make decisions and take responsibility for an experience shared by the wider community.
Dr Kirti Avishek, Associate Professor in the Department of Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics at BIT Mesra, said “Festivals are central to India’s cultural identity, bringing people together across communities and generations. At BIT Mesra, students lead the planning and organisation of cultural events, turning ideas into shared experiences for the campus community. Taking ownership of these celebrations helps them build leadership, manage responsibilities, work across teams and make decisions under real-world conditions. These experiences strengthen their confidence, organisational abilities and appreciation of cultural diversity, while complementing academic learning with practical skills that serve them in their professional and personal lives.”
Beyond organising campus celebrations, students can also learn by examining the economic activity surrounding festivals. From artisans receiving digital orders to businesses responding to seasonal demand, the festive economy offers practical lessons in how commerce and technology interact with tradition.
Prof. Atul Khosla, Vice Chancellor, Shoolini University, said, “India’s festive season is the country’s biggest live business case. In a few weeks you see consumer sentiment, credit, supply chains, digital commerce and centuries-old crafts all at work together. We want our students to celebrate these festivals and also to read them. When a student from Hyderabad celebrates Diwali in the Himalayas, they experience India’s diversity first-hand. When they look at how a Himachali weaver’s festive orders now come through a phone, they see where tradition and innovation meet. Those are the questions our students take on how to grow the festive economy without losing what makes it ours, and how to make sure the artisan gains as much as the platform.”
The educational value of festivals grows when students have opportunities to participate, observe and question. Organising a celebration teaches responsibility towards others; exploring its traditions builds cultural understanding; examining the livelihoods it supports raises questions about opportunity and fairness. Together, these experiences can help students become more thoughtful members of their communities, able to carry traditions forward while considering who benefits from the changes around them.