Holiday Sickness: When Fun Turns Into a Disease

By Gilbert M. Forbes

We surely are fun and jolly people.  There is no doubt about it.  Even if our country and its people are poor, we made it to be one among the happiest people in the world alongside the rich and powerful countries.

This could be seen as both a boon and bane.  A boon because even when there are lots of challenges, problems usually besetting us, we could still manage to laugh and live.  A bane because, we tend to be escapists of some important realities of life.  We simply manage to let go of problems and not look for solutions.

A fiesta celebration in Eastern Samar.
http://wn.com/Philippine_Fiesta

Among other things, because of love of fun, we love long holidays too much and has become sick of it.  Our country could be considered to have the longest holiday celebration in the world as such, we have the longest Christmas.  

Whenever there is holiday, even when how long or short it is, we always tend to extend.  It’s holiday sickness which is affecting much productivity.  While it could have positive impact on the economy as some holiday economist believe, it would be limited until the people celebrating the holiday has the money to spend which is of course limited.  It too has an economic downside more than experts may think.

Aside from legal, non-working and special holidays, we still have town, provincial, and other forms of family holidays such as birth days, baptismal, barangay and town fiestas, etc!  If holiday sickness is affecting productivity, how much more education of our youth? 

Out of the 203 school days, it was already slashed by holiday extensions of their families.  For instance, how many have returned last January 3, 2012 when classes resumed?   This is not limited to new year but every holiday.  For instance just after the semestral break, many have not returned at once also when classes started. Whenever it rains, even when there is no report of typhoon, parents usually prevent their children from coming to school for so many reasons.  The same way after typhoon subsided and classes goes back to normal.

Holiday sickness has already infected both the old and new generation particularly the most vulnerable segment of the society.  With already limited source of living, holiday celebrations further compounded their inadequacies.

This is not only evident in celebrating holidays but also with our presence in social networking sites.  Currently, According to the article by Dennis Clemente entitled The Good or Bad of PH as World Social Networking Capital, our country is regarded as the Social Networking Capital of the World.  It purportedly leads Facebook usage (ranked first in usage, sixth in terms of number of users) and to some degree, Twitter (ranked sixth and sometimes eighth) and Youtube (ranked first in uploads) aside from Skype calling, and texting (more than any country in the world; average user sends 600 text messages a month).    

The article further explained that people may wonder how a tiny country can manage to lead the way in social networking.  "Filipinos don't perceive this medium as a waste of time but on the contrary, a vital part of the daily interaction of Filipinos.  More important perhaps is the fact that Filipinos have time."  An available time which could have been used to more important and productive things.

How will the government, the church, knowledgeable authorities and education respond to this issue which is further damaging our already damaged culture is a major challenge?