{"id":18051,"date":"2026-10-19T09:17:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T09:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/?p=18051"},"modified":"2026-10-23T11:04:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T11:04:38","slug":"festive-giving-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/festive-giving-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Festive Giving 2026: Why We Give Most When We Gather, and How to Give So It Lasts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Summary<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Festive Giving 2026 is an invitation to look harder at a habit most Indians already have. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>From the Bhagavad Gita&#8217;s insistence that a good gift is given at the right time and place, to the langar&#8217;s rule that everyone eats together, Indian traditions have long tied generosity to the calendar and to the shared meal. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Behavioural science offers a measured confirmation: spending on others tends to lift mood a little, collective ritual increases generosity, and informal, face-to-face helping is linked more strongly to wellbeing than formal donation. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Meaningful festive giving in a plural India means giving time, skill and sustained support as readily as money.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"771\" src=\"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_20261001_114305-1024x771.jpg\" alt=\"Festive Giving 2026\" class=\"wp-image-18059\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_20261001_114305-1024x771.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_20261001_114305-300x226.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_20261001_114305-768x578.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_20261001_114305-1536x1157.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_20261001_114305-2048x1542.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_20261001_114305-1200x904.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_20261001_114305-1980x1491.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every October, in households that mark Diwali, a expected audit takes place. Someone counts the boxes of mithai that will leave the house against the ones expected to arrive, and the gap is rarely a cause for worry. For a few weeks, giving away more than you receive is the point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The same outward arithmetic appears elsewhere on the calendar: the extra portions cooked before Eid, the sadya served to a neighbour at Onam, the first rice of the Pongal harvest shared before it is eaten, the volunteer rota for a Gurpurab langar that fills up faster than the queue to be fed. Festive Giving 2026 arrives in a country where generosity has long kept time with the seasons, and it is worth asking what that timing is for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The old arithmetic: How giving acquired a calendar<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Indian traditions did not discover festive giving but prescribed it. The Bhagavad Gita, in verse <a href=\"https:\/\/vedabase.io\/en\/library\/bg\/17\/20\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">17.20<\/a>, describes the purest form of <em>daan<\/em> as a gift made from a sense of duty, with no expectation of return, at the proper place and time, to a fit recipient. The phrase to notice is &#8220;the proper time&#8221;. Long before fundraising calendars existed, the texts treated the occasion of a gift as part of its moral quality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A gift at the wrong moment, or given grudgingly, was ranked lower. <em>Annadaan<\/em>, the giving of food, carried a special weight within this scheme, which is why so many Indian festivals still revolve around a meal that is cooked for more people than the household can name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Langar_(Sikhism)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sikh langar<\/a> made that principle institutional. Begun under Guru Nanak around 1500 and established as a central practice by the third Guru, Guru Amar Das, the langar required that everyone who came to the Guru first sit on the floor and eat together, whatever their caste or station. On Gurpurab the kitchens swell, but the logic is the same every day: the gift is not only the food but the levelling that comes with eating it side by side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Islamic practice ties giving to the festival even more precisely. <em>Zakat al-Fitr<\/em> is due before the Eid prayer, so that the household with less can also celebrate, which turns charity into a precondition of the feast rather than an afterthought to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Christian communities in Kerala, Goa and the North-East carry their own versions, from parish collections to carol groups that visit homes and raise money for local needs. Onam has its <em>onakkodi<\/em>, the new clothes given to those who depend on you; Pongal is a thanksgiving in which the harvest is offered before it is consumed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These customs differ on who gives, who receives, whether the gift is obligatory or free, and whether it is meant to be seen. What they share is a conviction that the French anthropologist Marcel Mauss set out in <em>The Gift<\/em> a century ago: a gift creates a bond, and the bond, not the object, is what a community runs on. Festivals concentrate that bond-making into a few dense days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It would be a mistake to imagine these practices frozen in time. The langar now feeds flood victims and airport-stranded travellers. Diwali gifting has absorbed corporate hampers and UPI transfers. Daan Utsav, India&#8217;s week of giving in early October, is a twenty-first century invention that borrows the vocabulary of much older ones. Tradition, here, is a living argument about what generosity should look like, not a museum of fixed gestures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What the science of generosity actually shows<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The popular claim is simple: <strong>giving makes you happy<\/strong>. The evidence is more interesting than that, and more honest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The best-known <a href=\"https:\/\/forrt.org\/flora-replication-atlas\/doi\/10.1126\/science.1150952\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">study<\/a>, published in <em>Science<\/em> in 2008 by Elizabeth Dunn, Lara Aknin and Michael Norton, gave 46 people a small sum and asked half to spend it on themselves and half on someone else. Those who spent on others reported being happier by evening. In 2020 the same authors ran a registered replication with far larger groups. When 712 students were asked to buy something for a stranger in need, the mood lift reappeared. When 1,950 adults were asked merely to recall a past act of generous spending, it did not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A separate 2022 replication by Garam Kim and colleagues, with 133 participants, found no significant effect using the original analysis and a modest one using a more direct measure of happiness. The fair summary is that prosocial spending produces a real but small lift in mood, and that the lift depends a good deal on how, and for whom, the giving is done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The cross-cultural picture is steadier. Using Gallup World Poll <a href=\"https:\/\/dash.harvard.edu\/entities\/publication\/73120378-bb86-6bd4-e053-0100007fdf3b\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/dash.harvard.edu\/entities\/publication\/73120378-bb86-6bd4-e053-0100007fdf3b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">data<\/a> from 136 countries, Aknin and colleagues found that people who reported giving to others were happier, in rich and poor countries alike, even after accounting for income. Their experiments included participants in India, and recalling a past act of generous spending raised reported happiness there too. Correlation is not cause, and the authors say so; happier people may also give more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The most useful finding for anyone thinking about festivals comes from a 2020 meta-analysis in <em>Psychological Bulletin<\/em>. Bryant Hui and colleagues pooled 201 studies covering 198,213 people and found a modest overall link between prosocial behaviour and wellbeing. Two details matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Informal, spontaneous helping, the kind that happens between neighbours, was more strongly associated with wellbeing than scheduled volunteering for an organisation. And the link was stronger for eudaimonic wellbeing, the sense of meaning and purpose, than for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apa.org\/news\/press\/releases\/2020\/09\/doing-good-boosts-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">momentary pleasure<\/a>. Festivals are precisely the setting in which informal, face-to-face giving happens most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The neuroscience should be handled with care. In a 2007 fMRI study, William Harbaugh, Ulrich Mayr and Daniel Burghart found that when money went to a food bank, areas of the brain associated with reward were active even when the transfer was compulsory, and more active when it was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2007\/06\/070614151757.htm\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2007\/06\/070614151757.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">voluntary<\/a>. The study involved 19 women, and the same brain regions are implicated in many processes besides giving, so it is better read as evidence that giving is not purely a loss to the giver than as proof of a &#8220;helper&#8217;s high&#8221;. The economists&#8217; own term for that extra reward of choosing to give, &#8220;warm glow&#8221;, is the more modest and accurate one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ritual adds a dimension that laboratory studies of spending miss. Dimitris Xygalatas and colleagues studied the Thaipusam festival in Mauritius and found that both performers and spectators of the intense <em>kavadi<\/em> ritual donated more to the temple afterwards than people who had only attended the quieter collective prayers, and that higher reported pain went with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psypost.org\/painful-and-extreme-rituals-enhance-social-cohesion-and-charity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">larger donations<\/a>. \u00c9mile Durkheim called the state produced by shared ritual &#8220;collective effervescence&#8221; in 1912; the Mauritius data are a rare field measurement of it. Shared meals, shared song and the visible generosity of others all make a community&#8217;s norms briefly louder, and most of us give more when we can see that giving is what people like us are doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That same visibility explains the season&#8217;s shadow side. Social pressure can push a family into gifts it cannot afford. Guilt and status can turn a donation into a performance, with the recipient reduced to a backdrop. Surveys also struggle to see Indian generosity at all: the Charities Aid Foundation&#8217;s ten-year World Giving Index ranked India 82nd of 128 countries, and its own India chief attributed the low rank to a strong culture of informal giving to family, community and religion that the <a href=\"https:\/\/sabrangindia.in\/indians-less-charitable-asian-counterparts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">index<\/a> does not capture. The research supports a cautious conclusion: giving tends to feel good, it feels best when it is chosen and personal, and the feeling is not a guarantee that the gift did any good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Giving well in a plural India<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The third question is the one that matters for Festive Giving 2026, and it is not about quantity. India&#8217;s festive calendar is plural by design. One household lights lamps while another fasts, a third keeps no religious festival at all and still cooks for the building&#8217;s security guard, and a fourth finds the season heavy with absence or debt. Any serious idea of festive giving has to make room for all of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The texts and the data point the same way. The Gita&#8217;s insistence on the fit recipient and the right time is, in modern language, a call for giving that is informed and well-timed rather than reflexive. Hui&#8217;s meta-analysis suggests the giver gains most from helping that is personal and meaningful. And the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bain.com\/insights\/india-philanthropy-report-2026\/\">India Philanthropy Report 2026<\/a> from Bain and Dasra finds that although private giving in India is growing, it still lags estimated need and remains unevenly distributed, with higher-poverty regions underfunded. Giving a lot during one week does little if it arrives where it is least needed and stops when the decorations do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So what does meaningful festive giving look like? It gives time and skill as readily as money: an accountant&#8217;s afternoon, a teacher&#8217;s weekend, a lawyer&#8217;s letter. It gives to the places where the giver will still be in March, so that a relationship can form around the gift. It prefers unrestricted support to earmarked parcels, because the people closest to a problem usually know better than a distant donor what the next rupee should buy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It asks before it gives, and it treats the answer as expertise rather than ingratitude. And it notices that generosity runs in every direction: the domestic worker who brings sweets from her village, the auto driver who waits unpaid outside a hospital, the neighbour who feeds a dozen strangers on Eid, are givers too, not only recipients of someone else&#8217;s seasonal goodwill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/donation\/diwali?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=paid-search&amp;utm_campaign=Diwali_RetSearch&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=24385043927&amp;gbraid=0AAAABCljPaT_3YHSpZzvvp75A0QZy-YCz&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwi-zWBhAdEiwAqlRf-MTYaC9P7uun6gElKWGEiJ4y1yDAIrETmcSplq2xE53HEj27dhAVvBoC_Z0QAvD_BwE\">Make a donation<\/a> this festive season!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_8959-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18058\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_8959-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_8959-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_8959-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_8959-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_8959-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_8959-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_8959-1980x1320.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Frequently asked questions (FAQs)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What is festive giving?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Festive giving is the practice of sharing money, food, time, gifts or help with others during a festival or holiday season. In India it draws on older traditions such as <em>daan<\/em>, <em>seva<\/em>, <em>annadaan<\/em>, <em>zakat<\/em> and the langar, and it ranges from informal gifts to neighbours and domestic workers to organised donations and volunteering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Why do people tend to give more during festive seasons?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Festivals combine several conditions that research links to generosity: shared rituals and meals, visible giving by others, strong social norms, and traditions that explicitly tie charity to the occasion, such as <em>zakat al-Fitr<\/em> before Eid. Field research on collective ritual also finds that people give more after taking part in or watching intense shared ceremonies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What does science say about the psychological benefits of generosity?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A 2020 meta-analysis of 201 studies found a modest link between prosocial behaviour and wellbeing, strongest for informal helping and for a sense of meaning rather than momentary pleasure. Experiments on spending for others show small, real mood gains, though replications vary. Brain imaging suggests giving engages reward-related regions, but samples are small and the findings are easily overstated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>How can people practise festive giving in India?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Options include cooking for or sharing a meal with neighbours and workers, contributing to a langar or community kitchen, giving <em>zakat<\/em> or <em>daan<\/em> to a trusted recipient, volunteering during Daan Utsav or a local festival, donating to a registered organisation, or offering professional skills. The most lasting forms tend to be those that continue after the festival ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>How can someone give meaningfully without spending a lot of money?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Time, skill and attention are gifts in their own right. Teaching, mentoring, helping with paperwork, carrying groceries for an older neighbour, or sitting with someone who is alone during the season all count. Research suggests informal, face-to-face helping is linked more strongly to the giver&#8217;s wellbeing than large formal donations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>How can festive giving be inclusive of different religions and communities?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Start from the fact that India celebrates many festivals and that many people observe none. Give in ways that do not require the recipient to share your faith, avoid making gifts conditional on attendance or belief, learn the giving customs of neighbours of other communities, and support organisations that serve people regardless of religion or caste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>How can people choose a credible organisation for charitable giving?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Check that the organisation is legally registered and has valid tax-exemption status (such as 80G in India), publishes annual reports and audited accounts, explains clearly what it does and where, and answers questions. Prefer organisations that work closely with the communities they serve and that welcome unrestricted support rather than only one-off, earmarked gifts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>How can Festive Giving 2026 make a meaningful difference?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By directing part of the season&#8217;s generosity toward sustained, community-led work rather than a single gesture. The India Philanthropy Report 2026 finds that private giving still lags need and is unevenly distributed, with poorer regions underfunded. Giving that is informed, continues beyond the festival and respects the dignity and judgement of recipients is the kind most likely to last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Sources consulted<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Dunn, E. W., Aknin, L. B. &amp; Norton, M. I. (2008). Spending money on others promotes happiness. <em>Science<\/em>, 319(5870), 1687\u20131688. <a href=\"https:\/\/forrt.org\/flora-replication-atlas\/doi\/10.1126\/science.1150952\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Replication record<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Aknin, L. B., Barrington-Leigh, C. P., Dunn, E. W., Helliwell, J. F. et al. (2013). Prosocial spending and well-being: cross-cultural evidence for a psychological universal. <em>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology<\/em>, 104(4). <a href=\"https:\/\/dash.harvard.edu\/entities\/publication\/73120378-bb86-6bd4-e053-0100007fdf3b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Harvard DASH<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Aknin, L. B., Dunn, E. W., Proulx, J., Lok, I. &amp; Norton, M. I. (2020). Does spending money on others promote happiness? A registered replication report. <em>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology<\/em>, 119(2), e15\u2013e26. <a href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1037\/pspa0000191\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DOI<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kim, G., Adams, I., Diaw, M., Celly, M., Nelson, L. D. &amp; Jung, M. H. (2022). Prosocial spending encourages happiness: a replication of the only experiment reported in Dunn, Aknin, and Norton (2008). <em>PLOS ONE<\/em>, 17(9), e0272434. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC9451075\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PMC<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hui, B. P. H., Ng, J. C. K., Berzaghi, E., Cunningham-Amos, L. A. &amp; Kogan, A. (2020). Rewards of kindness? A meta-analysis of the link between prosociality and well-being. <em>Psychological Bulletin<\/em>, 146(12). <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apa.org\/news\/press\/releases\/2020\/09\/doing-good-boosts-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">APA press release<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/repository.hku.hk\/handle\/10722\/288158\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HKU repository<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Harbaugh, W. T., Mayr, U. &amp; Burghart, D. R. (2007). Neural responses to taxation and voluntary giving reveal motives for charitable donations. <em>Science<\/em>, 316(5831), 1622\u20131625. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2007\/06\/070614151757.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ScienceDaily summary<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/journals\/psychology\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2013.00585\/full\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Commentary on limitations, Mukherjee 2013<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Xygalatas, D., Mitkidis, P., Fischer, R., Reddish, P., Skewes, J., Geertz, A. W., Roepstorff, A. &amp; Bulbulia, J. (2013). Extreme rituals promote prosociality. <em>Psychological Science<\/em>, 24(8), 1602\u20131605. <a href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1177\/0956797612472910\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DOI<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psypost.org\/painful-and-extreme-rituals-enhance-social-cohesion-and-charity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PsyPost summary<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bain &amp; Company and Dasra (25 February 2026). <em>India Philanthropy Report 2026<\/em>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bain.com\/insights\/india-philanthropy-report-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bain<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/dasra.org\/individual-resources\/176\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dasra<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Charities Aid Foundation, <em>World Giving Index 2019<\/em> (ten-year edition), as reported by IndiaSpend. <a href=\"https:\/\/sabrangindia.in\/article\/indians-less-charitable-asian-counterparts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sabrang India reprint<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bhagavad Gita 17.20\u201317.22, on sattvic, rajasic and tamasic <em>daan<\/em>. <a href=\"https:\/\/vedabase.io\/en\/library\/bg\/17\/20\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vedabase<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/D%C4%81na\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">D\u0101na overview<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Langar (Sikhism): origins under Guru Nanak and institutionalisation under Guru Amar Das. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Langar_(Sikhism)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wikipedia<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mauss, M. (1925). <em>Essai sur le don<\/em> (<em>The Gift<\/em>). Durkheim, \u00c9. (1912). <em>The Elementary Forms of Religious Life<\/em>. Cited from general knowledge; no page fetched.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every festive season, Indian households quietly count outwards: more mithai boxes leave than arrive, more plates are laid than there are family members. That habit has a long history and a surprisingly cautious science behind it. This piece asks why gathering makes us generous, and what separates a gesture from a gift that lasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":14863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18051"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18060,"href":"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18051\/revisions\/18060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smilefoundationindia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}