Festival economy and its impact

Festivals commemorate the watersheds of civilisation. Enthusiasm and fervour of great religious festivals swept all across Greece and Rome in ancient time. At times they assumed a distinct character by virtue of the nature of competition -athletic or drama. In modern times, the Christian world in the West has one single unrivalled festival to celebrate in the form of Christmas. The Muslims have two Eids -Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha. The Boudhhas celebrate the birthday of Goutam Buddha and a few others usually on the night of full moon. But it is the Hindus who have myriads of festivals, according to sects and regions. Among them the Bangalee Hindus however have their biggest festival Durga Puja. Apart from such religious festivals, there are festivals of secular character such as celebration of the New Year, according to the Gregorian calendar or Bangla or other calendars. Along such festivals, there are ones like the village fair, a fair held at Rabindranath's Shantiniketan on 7th Poush and a few such local fairs or competitions of varying nature.
Now all such festivals are related to economy -either local, regional, national or international. Festival economy rolls on billion-dollar businesses, particularly when it concerns an occasion like the Christmas or Eid. Even though the Durga Puja is limited to only the Bangalee Hindus, the economy in the erstwhile undivided Bengal used to thrive on the many times revved up financial activities. People wait for festivals to spend a good chunk of their fortune in order to make the occasions memorable. Normally, expenditure of every subsequent year should outstrip that of the previous year. But economic downturn and rising unemployment of recent years have had a negative impact on the trend of expenditure.
In the West research groups or organisations make projections on the habit of expenditure by average families in a country. A survey by market research group Deloitte has found that French were inclined to rein in their Christmas expenditure for the first time since 2008 because they are unsure about their purchasing capacity in 2014. The French were expected to spend 0.9 per cent less at an average family budget of 531 euros. The average British family was expected to spend 868 pounds on Christmas this year, according to a survey by Switch, another marketing and research group. This amount is only six pounds more than the Britons spent in 2002. However, another survey points out that the average British consumer was expected to spend 298 pounds on gifts, less than half of the 634 pounds they parted with last year. But last year the Britons had to dig into their reserve for expenses during this holiday season.
Along with the French, the Greeks and Italians were forced to cut their spending on Christmas. Spain, another sick European Union (EU) member had reasons to rejoice over the fact that it could afford a one per cent rise in spending after it had to sacrifice four per cent last year. In France, 44 per cent people -four per cent up from last year's 40 per cent think that their purchasing capacity will take a plunge in 2014. However this is contradictory to the forecasts made by the European Commission about the growth of European economies. According to it, all EU countries except Cyprus and Slovenia will see their economies grow with the largest German economy expanding 1.7 per cent and second-biggest French 0.9 per cent.
Even more good news was that the average family spending in Europe would mark a 0.7 per cent rise to about 450 per family. The spending spree was expected to be spearheaded by Luxembourg where a family's average budget for Christmas was estimated at 825 euros followed by Finland with 692 euros and Denmark with 632 euros. But these countries have small population. Germany was supposed to increase its spending 6.3 per cent more on Christmas but still the average amount comes to only 399 euros. Switzerland was expected to be a big spender with 656 euros as an average family budget.
Across the Pacific, the Americans were also found to have trimmed their expenditure on Christmas, according to a Gallup poll. In October the Americans planned to spend $786 but in Novembers they revised the expenditure down to $704 on gifts. They were expected to spend $600 billion during the Christmas shopping this year.
All this is a clear indication that business gets brisk during Christmas in the western world and people can plan for such occasions according to the health of economy in a particular country. The ebbs and flows of economy may depend on many factors but the spending spree can obviously be a strong indication of any national economy. Sale proceedings in some businesses during festival time are more than the rest of the year. In this part of the world, the same principle is at work. But the sad fact is that no such survey is conducted to see how much a family spends on clothes, gifts, foods and other items. Today there are families which go for shopping abroad during the Eids and Puja. But not such family shopping but import of apparels from abroad leave a discernible impact on the country's economy. During the Eid-ul-azha, however, the cattle business becomes a deciding factor because much depends on the import of animals from India.
On the other hand, a festival like the Christmas has its global impact, only more so, on the Bangladesh economy. Apparels exported to the European countries and the United States of America mean a lot for the country's foreign exchange earning. This year, a large number of potential orders were diverted from Bangladesh to India by the importers in America and the EU for reasons understandable. The festival time is the best time for businesspeople. But lamentably those in Bangladesh could not make the most of it this year.
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