Holiday cheer should not be artificially forced, psychologist says

A festive mood should not be created artificially or tied strictly to calendar dates; it becomes genuine and lasting when people themselves feel the desire to create a celebration for themselves, their families, or loved ones.

This was stated by social and military psychologist Oleh Pokalchuk in an interview with Ukrinform.

According to him, people should not try to stimulate themselves ahead of holidays in order to manufacture a sense of celebration for themselves or those around them, as this often leads to excessive focus on the “holidays” themselves and on everything happening around them.

Pokalchuk also noted that undue importance should not be attached to a calendar date such as New Year’s Eve simply because of the imposed notion that one is expected to behave in some “special” way at that time.

“A festive mood is more stable and long-lasting when you create it for someone – for yourself, your family, even your pets – at the moment when you genuinely feel like doing so. But when you depend on someone else, that ‘someone else’ can always ruin your mood,” the social and military psychologist explained.

When asked how Ukrainians should approach the possibility of having to welcome the New Year in a metro station or another shelter, Pokalchuk pointed out that people have already spent time in the metro during shelling, and that there is currently no escalation of mass fear.

“People experience the shelling of 2022 and the current attacks differently – they can now distinguish them by sound, context, and consequences. There is no escalation of mass fear,” he concluded.

As previously reported by Ukrinform, Russia deliberately assigns a demonic meaning to dates such as New Year’s in order to create an additional element of harm by imposing, and then destroying, certain celebration rituals.