Sun, the burning ball has been much more than just a star and has a huge significance in different cultures across the world. Even in the primitive societies the importance of Sun was never undermined. Many of today's festivals have their origins related to Sun.
Sun was worshiped by the Greeks as Titan, Romans as Sol, Egyptians as Ra, in the Americas, by the Hindus as Surya etc. 25 December which is celebrated as the birthday of Christ also coincides with the birthday of the Sun, "The Roman winter Solstice". The christian festival Easter also has its solar characteristics, the word Easter is said to mark the movement of Sun towards the east, some folklore suggests that Sun dances on the Easter morning. All the harvest festivals around the world are inevitably linked with the Sun. Particularly in the Hindu tradition, Sun has played an important part in the mythology. Pongal is celebrated to mar the beginning of the northward journey of the Sun, Chatth is celebrated to thank Sun god for sustaining the life in the world. There are special temples dedicated to Sun, the most famous of which is the Konark. An elaborate ritual of Surya Namaskara has been dedicated to the Sun every morning in the Hindu religion. The ancient Egyptian New Year marked the Summer Solstice, the rise of all-fertiling Nile.
Through out centuries we have been worshiping Sun, enter the marketing campaign Sun has now been turned into a villain. From being hailed as the life giver to shying away from the Sun has been quite a fascinating journey. A careful observation of the animal kingdom shows that the animals are more comfortable coming out in the Sun than in the winter months, when they prefer to spend indoors. Sun has always been a reason to celebrate. One of the reasons for life to exist on this planet. If we consider the food chain, our food originates from the photosynthesis, which can happen only because of the Sun. From that high position of a reason to cheer, Sun today has fallen quite a bit. Examining the reasons for it, one of the most important reason to my mind is the advent of obsession with fairness.
To sell fairness the marketers first propagated the superiority of a fairer skin over the darker skin, then they had to identify the villain who would be combatted with their beauty products. Sun fell easy prey to it. Then came terms like SPFs (Sun Protection force) of the world. Further it graduated to Sun Bloc, Anti tan creams, pre exposure preventions, post exposure cures and there was no end to it. As a result we have a world where creams, lotions and other products fight on who protects us more from our cause of existence (i.e., the Sun). It really has been a clever marketing game to make us believe that having a darker shade of skin is bad, which infact is good as per science. There are enough and more studies which show the skin with more melanin (the darker skin) is less prone to certain kinds of skin diseases than the one with low melanin (the fairer skin tone). Along with the fairness industry also came the subsidiary industries which sell health drinks with Vitamin D supplements and pharma companies which sell vitamin D in capsules, some thing which the Sun gives us for free.
Particularly in the Indian context some theorists believe that the obsession with the fair skin originated with trying to be equal to the colonial masters. Colonialism has been long gone but the obsession continues. As a result we have an entire generation trying to hide from the Sun using scarfs, caps and a range of cosmetic products. Some might argue that the Sun's rays have become very harmful now but if we increase the green house gas emissions what does the poor sun do.
Extending the thought, we should be thankful that the plants are not yet stuck by this bug. What if they start hiding away from sun and start using Sun Blocs, what would happen to us?