There are times when simple ideas achieve greatness and success. Polo was a just a regular mint, but it was in the shape of a small tyre. "The mint with a hole," they called it. And for some reason that became a big deal.
Donuts were already sugary tyres. But someone thought of selling the centre cut out from them as donut holes, because we all know the US needed one more fatty food. In Mumbai a vada pav shop became famous just because its owner thought of packing in some chura, crunchy leftover bits of fried batter, in the sandwich.
Similarly, small social innovations, or the same activities but with a new name, have acquired special status in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Take the case of ‘micro-parties’, currently trending in different parts of the world and recommended by behaviour experts as a healthy way of experiencing some normalcy and cheer.
According to the BBC, a Pinterest trend report for 2021 shows that many people are having micro-parties. Lord Google, which observes the world through powerful telescopes and screens from its perch in the Googleplex, has also noted a growth in the number of micro-party queries.
In itself, a micro-party is not extraordinary. Micro-parties in some form have taken place all along, even before Coronavirus. Our coffee or drink meetings with our circle, weekend meals together, what else were they if not micro-parties? In bleak Nordic winters, when work conditions became difficult, locals started having Wednesday evening gatherings, calling them ‘lillordag’. Effectively, they reduced a working week from five or six days to a couple of days.
But now micro-parties have a higher purpose, especially in parts with strict quarantine where people haven’t socialised in months.
Also, pre-Coronavirus, micro-parties could be defined as any small gathering. Now they are also held to celebrate small achievements. Emmy award winning TV personality Kae Lani Palmisano held a party because she had finally learnt to bake bread.
“It was just about celebrating that I’ve progressed in my sourdough making,” she told the BBC. “It has taken me months to figure out how to deal with the dough, how long to let my loaf ferment, at what temperature it needs to rest before I put it in the oven.”
Fred B Bryant, a professor of social psychology at Loyola University in Chicago, tracks down the history of celebration to ancient times. “Across every culture, it goes back to the dawn of recorded time,” he said. “There’s the celebration of successfully hunting a mastodon, or a good harvest, celebrations of discovery, of good fortune.”
But then there is the financial factor to consider. Many people would rather not spend on indulgences in the current situation. Even for a micro-party, you need to put out some decent drinks and food.
Mood is the other important point, and the most important ingredient of merry-making. Due to the uncertainty ahead and other related dampeners, it is natural if you are not feeling up to a celebration, however small. In that case your micro-party is going to be a pain, a plod through small talk and forced laughter, for you and your guests.
For many people, it makes sense to party when something significant happens. But these are different times. As Professor Bryant says, “There are far more little things to celebrate than there are milestones. The wedding you get one shot at, but the little things you get every day.”
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