In this last summer column, before the state of our health and education systems, the American elections, the armed conflicts that are sweeping the world, the challenges related to climate change, the housing crisis or any other serious subject come back to take up all the space in my humble brain, I wanted to confide in you my love of celebrations of all kinds.
I have loved throwing parties since I was a little girl. As a child, I would spend hours cutting strips of construction paper of all colors into rings and making garlands. I loved setting the table, folding napkins into fans, and arranging them in glasses. I would get out my best writing hand and write the names of the guests on little place cards. Then I would add bouquets of flowers picked that morning. And if the parties were in the winter, I would make paper flowers, using green pipe cleaners for stems. There was little that made me happier than the prospect of throwing a “big party “.
To this day, I suffer from this strange festive fever. I even managed to transform this passion into a professional skill. By becoming a producer and director in the theater, I was able to put my years of experience as an organizer to good use. Creating a set, costumes, providing a buffet for the actors, respecting a budget and schedules, and, above all, feeling galvanized on opening nights, when the rumor of the audience can be heard, is a bit like preparing a great pagan ceremony.
I think my love for celebrations and the performing arts comes from the fact that I love seeing humans in communion. By that I mean that people live, for the time of a day or an evening, a common activity to honor friendship, love, life. Whether we are sitting around a table, or dancing, or playing pétanque, it doesn’t matter how: the important thing is to put our individualities on hold to unite and offer each other a little sweetness and a few laughs. This helps to strengthen bonds and break isolation.
Having moved away from religion, many of us no longer have the obligation to participate in certain rites of passage dictated by the Church. However, it seems to me that birth, marriage and death are still relevant and, even far from religious dogmas, there is a way to highlight these pivotal moments in a small community. We just need to re-appropriate their symbolism and reinvent the rituals. In mid-August, I was lucky enough to be invited to a friend’s civil wedding. We were invited to Percé, to gorge ourselves on love, wind and salt air. The couple said yes, on the shore, their feet in the pebbles and their eyes full of tears. In addition to the beauty of their gesture and the enchanting setting, I was moved to see the small group of pilgrims that we formed. We had traveled hundreds of kilometers to witness the union of our friends together. Some knew each other, others did not, all had an intimate bond with one or both of the future bride and groom, and this was enough for new friendships to emerge, both among children and adults.
Of course, I couldn’t help but get involved in thinking about some of the little details to make the party a success. My most relevant expertise was waste management. Because even The most romantic and stripped-down of celebrations involves a certain amount of residue. So I took charge of this aspect. It may seem obvious to think about providing infrastructure for recycling cans or metal containers filled with sand as ashtrays, but these small details can be of great help. Because with everything party There comes a day after a night of smoking when you have to pick up “the dead bodies,” as my uncle used to say, pointing to the empty bottles and bags of chips. Maybe one day there won’t be any more smokers, but until then, I’d rather find nice galvanized steel buckets than crawl around picking up cigarette butts in the wet grass.
If I tell you about the pleasure I have in creating festive events down to the smallest details, from the trash cans to the lavender bouquet, from the Armenian paper to the toilets, it is in fact because I want to make a deeper confession to you. I love humans and I am deeply gregarious. Extroverted, talkative, hyperactive, when I know I am going to be with other humans, I light up like a set of Christmas lights. I shine with all my brilliance. I cook desserts, I make appetizers, I move 300 kilos of equipment, just trying to find the best arrangement of tables and chairs. And all this, whatever the pretext: a children’s party, a housewarming, the equinox… It doesn’t matter, as long as the house is full of people.
I love the party so much that, as Brel says in his song The dying manon the day of my funeral, “I want us to laugh, I want us to dance”. Besides, I already have some ideas for decoration and menu; if life allows me to stage it, it will be beautiful and unifying, because, until the end of my days, I would like to celebrate life, for us to celebrate it together.