The International Writers Magazine: Getting Involved

10 Reasons to Participate in Cultural Festivals • Alina Jersey Cultural Festivals are meant to celebrate the heritage and culture of the hosts. While plenty of time and effort goes into taking part, you will also be able to enjoy the benefits and fun that mixing with local people and their festivals bring.

10 reasons for you to participate in cultural festivals:

1. Tourism boost
Cultural festivals help to boost tourism. Visitors like going to destinations during festival seasons. When you participate in a festival, you help boost local tourism, which in turn helps bring in foreign revenues to the hosting country.

2. Income generation
Cultural festivals provide the locals with the opportunity to sell their wares. If you take part in a festival, you help the people of the area earn a living. This in turn helps them improve their fortunes significantly.

3. Investment
Cultural festivals tend to attract financing. When you take the opportunity to partake in the festivals, you help bring financing to the hosts. The financing is then used not just to make the festivals a success, but also to improve local infrastructure. This in turn helps to improve the quality of life for the locals.

4. Cultural
Preservation and sharing Cultural festivals help educate the visitors and even the locals of the culture and heritage of the hosts. This then ensures that the local culture is preserved and shared with others.

5. Tolerance enhancement
The sharing of cultural values during cultural festivals helps not just preserve rich cultures that may face extinction, but also promote deeper understanding. When visitors learn about the local culture, they are able to become open minded and more tolerant. Cultural festivals are therefore, instruments that promote worldwide tolerance among humankind.

6. Fostering of Community Pride
Cultural festivals help create a sense of pride among the local communities who host these festivals. This ensures that they gain a deeper appreciation of their roots. In doing so, the locals are able to respect the ways of their forefathers. Sustaining the old cultural values becomes much easier after that.

7. Fostering Patriotism and peace
Cultural festivals help to foster better understanding among people who are hosting the festivals. By learning about the ties that bind them and sharing them with others, they create a sense of community. The strong ties will be instrumental in helping the local people maintain national pride as well as peace.

8. Learning volunteerism
Cultural festivals enable you to volunteer to promote your culture and heritage. Volunteering will then become an activity that you will do more often because it makes you feel good when you accomplish great things. Your mental wellbeing will improve as a result.

9. Give the Elderly dignity
Cultural festivals provides the older generation with the opportunity to mentor the youth. This makes the older people feel valued and useful within the society. It makes them feel that their lives are worth living, so that they can pass on their knowledge before they die.

10. Training opportunities
Cultural festivals offer the organizers and volunteers training opportunities. These will enable you to participate while learning skills that you can use in your home and work life to provide leadership and get things done.
© Alina Jersey November 2014
Author bio:
Alina from UK, travel enthusiast who loves to share her travel stories on different blogs. Presently she working on behalf of Bahrain Visa which provides a visa assistance to visit Bahrain.

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