Two Things I learnt with the Coming of my Untraditional Age and Writing Repetitive Essays

Remember when we were asked to write an essay on 'Festivals' as kids?

I remember I wrote that they are our chance to reunite, to celebrate our traditions. 
I must have been too naïve, I suppose, to have thought that.

Yes, festivals are to reunite. But with your own self more than others. Because we almost go on about living each day in the sight of others, and slowly the sight becomes the might of others. And festivals are the break. Break from living with others. Break from living for others. To live for yourself. To meet yourself. More than anyone else.

And No, festivals are to celebrate happiness more than traditions. Because traditions were once entrusted with the responsibility of keeping people happy, content with their selves. 
And if this sounds a lot too individualist, then how do you know festivals were not made to become one own selves? That you are your own self on other days? And that it is required that we live for others on some days and not everyday? That being with one own self isn’t equivalent to living for others? And why is it that we live for others at all, then?