Seeking quotes on what festivals have to do with the nation (urgent)

Traditional festivals and the nation's cultural identity

Zhong Fulan

The topic of traditional Chinese festivals has become a hot topic in the media recently. Following last year's announcement that an Asian country was preparing to declare the "Dragon Boat Festival" as its own cultural heritage to UNESCO, the festival has now been added to the national heritage list and will soon be declared a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" by the United Nations, the Chinese People's Congress (NPC) deputy Ji Baocheng said. National People's Congress deputy Ji Baobao into the traditional festivals after the appeal, in the two sessions this year, many deputies to the National People's Congress and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference have proposed to increase the New Year's Eve, Ching Ming, Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival for China's statutory holidays and festivals. A number of folklore scholars have also recently suggested that traditional festivals such as New Year's Eve, Ching Ming, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival should be added as legal holidays, so as to revive the traditional festivals through official intervention. They think that Chinese people all over the world attach great importance to traditional Chinese festivals. In Hong Kong, the Spring Festival, Ching Ming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Chung Yeung Festival are the five major traditional festivals which are designated as statutory holidays. Traditional festivals are the carriers of Chinese national culture, which are not only diversified and enjoyable, but also festivals that all families and even the whole nation like to participate in, which can play a role in nourishing the roots of the Chinese nation and promoting the soul of the nation. Others believe that in order to establish an economic powerhouse, there must be a strong cultural support, traditional festivals is also a subtle patriotic education.

But there are also many people who put forward a different view, they believe that the most fundamental reason for the decline of traditional Chinese festivals lies in its obvious characteristics of the farming era, which can no longer adapt to the needs of people in modern society for the festival. Due to the busyness and fatigue of work, people's demand for festivals in modern society is warmth and romance, complete relaxation, living their own lives and living out their own personalities. But the traditional festivals bring people just the opposite, the journey of tiredness and social entertainment, old-fashioned customs and snobbish comparison, often make people's personalities submerged in the mundane **** sex, will make people exhausted, no fun to speak of. The decline has become an inevitability.

Worthy of this boiling protection of Chinese folk festivals and the inevitable decline of traditional festivals, the author has no intention of joining the debate between these two views, but just want to think about from another perspective, raise some questions, to the scholars through the people for advice.

The cultural value of traditional festivals

Traditional Chinese festivals and our national history of politics, culture, religion, especially economic and other factors entangled together, although the background of the various festivals vary, but generally speaking, once produced, it has a relative stability, and often the production of a festival customs, and national psychological characteristics of the existence of an intrinsic link is inevitable, so that Year after year, passed on from generation to generation. In terms of the Spring Festival, whether it is official or private, whether it is the dignitaries or the common people, all different days and celebrations.

Traditional Chinese festivals have been passed down spontaneously for thousands of years in the agrarian life of the Chinese people, and have formed the content and expression of the major life of the whole nation that has been passed down from generation to generation, and the cultural connotations and extensions of each festival have relatively stable and perfect harmony, and have shown great cultural value.

The unique imprint of Chinese production and labor. Traditional Chinese festivals are an important part of China's folk culture, and they are the specific content of the "seasons of the year". Festivals in the context of the farming civilization are the seasons scheduled by the combination of the year, the month, the day and the time, and the changes in the climate of summer and cold, which are confirmed by the cyclic pattern of the growth cycle of agricultural crops. As early as in the Yinxu oracle bone inscriptions have seen a very complete ancient calendar chronology. With the ancient astronomy, calendar, seasonal, weather knowledge to form a large composite system. The ancients said "four times and eight seasons", of which twenty-four seasons and seasons in the composition of folk festivals is crucial. Here, the concept of "festival" is to break down the gradual change of the seasons into the same spacing as the grass knots and bamboo knots, and to call the time when the seasons intersect with each other as the "intersection of the seasons", which translates into the meaning of "festivals". The festival is called the "festival", which is a new meaning for the term "festival". For thousands of years, it has maintained the perfect harmony between the rhythms of production and life in farming culture and the rhythms of nature's seasons and weather, and the ecological environment.

The Chinese concept of harmony and fulfillment is pursued. Looking back at the various traditional Chinese festivals, almost all of them are related to the operation of the sun and the moon. Historically, the scheduling of folk festivals has paid special attention to the solstices of the twelve months of the year, which is almost the most basic convention marking the festivals in Chinese agrarian society. The full moon on the day of hope is the fifteenth day of the month. Ancient Qin and Han period of the Fangshi, Taoist calculations of the lunar calendar, another "Sanyuan" said that the "heavenly officials" of the God in charge of "blessing", the birthday of the first month of the fifteenth, is the "on the first". "on the first day of the first month", so the ancient agreement on the first day of the year for the "on the first day of the first month", a big celebration of the festival, the development of the "Lantern Festival". It was also believed that the God of "Earth" was in charge of "forgiveness of sins", and his birthday was on the 15th of July, which was "Zhongyuan", and it was agreed in ancient times that it would be the "Zhongyuan Festival". In ancient times, it was designated as the "Zhongyuan Festival", and all families held a big festival for their ancestors. It is also believed that the god "Shui Guan" is in charge of "relieving" and eliminating disasters, and his birthday is on October 15, which is the "Lower Yuan", and it was agreed in ancient times to be the "Lower Yuan Festival". "It was also developed into a festival. The most noteworthy is the August Mid-Autumn Festival. Originally, "Mid-Autumn" only referred to the month of August, but later, because of the August Hope Day, which is the middle of the three autumns, the 15th of August became the "Mid-Autumn Festival". A full moon in the sky can make a strong man cry; every year during the Spring Festival, travelers from all corners of the world have to go home for reunion. For thousands of years, Chinese people have closely coordinated their life rhythm with the full moon of nature, constituting a perfect and harmonious festival culture. It should be said that this is an excellent cultural tradition and valuable intangible heritage of mankind.

The symbolic code of Chinese thinking and memory. Since ancient times, China's agricultural calendar has been using the "stem and branch" chronicle, the month, the date method of arranging the month and day, very complicated, many are regarded as auspicious or festival days, difficult to remember and gradually disappeared; however, people are in the many scattered auspicious days, festival days in the customary selection of the month and day of the code of the day of the number of overlapping days, as a holiday! Passed down. So there is a "first month is" the New Year's Day; "February 2" Spring Dragon Festival, commonly known as "dragon head-raising" day; "March 3 "March 3" Shangsi Festival, also known as the song festival of many ethnic minorities; "May 5" Dragon Boat Festival; "June 6" Tian Kuang Festival, commonly known as the "Sun Bug Festival"; "July 7th is the Tanabata Festival, commonly known as the Beggar's Tree Festival, and September 9th is the Chongyang Festival. In the Chinese concept of festivals in the overlap of the numerical code of the month and day is auspicious and mysterious figures, of which "five five Duanyang Festival", "nine nine Chongyang Festival" is regarded as in addition to the New Year's Day of the major festivals.

Why have festivals? If there are no festivals, doesn't the earth still rotate, and doesn't the sun rise and set every day? Yes, I think the most fundamental meaning of this "festival" is still in the word "festival". It is related to the rhythmic movement of nature and human society. Our country is a traditional agricultural country, in the country based on agriculture, the origin of the festival is often related to agricultural activities. "Four Seasons and Eight Festivals", like the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Tanabata, Mid-Autumn Festival, Chungyang Festival, and New Year's Eve folk festivals for both urban and rural people*** degree, their origins can not be separated from agricultural activities. "The sun rises and the sun sets". Spring, summer, fall and winter, the sequence of time, people's lives to have a rhythm, and in this way to adapt to the rhythm of nature. "The way of literature and martial arts, a relaxation", the folk festival is the embodiment of the rhythm of life. The reason for the emergence of festivals, in addition to a variety of beautiful legends, wonderful interpretation, the most basic is to meet the needs of people's lives - hard-working people, the need to adjust, rest and recreation, festivals are the people to regulate their own lives and the natural formation of a series of buffer mechanisms, it is also through a variety of traditional forms of festivals to express their joy and wishes and aspirations for the future. It can be said that festivals are the spiritual and material life of mankind **** need, there is no nation in the world does not have its own traditional folk festival.

The great contrast of reality

Traditional festivals of the year are formed by people through the grasp of nature, including fixed festivals and specific cultural activities, the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival, Qingming ...... are all passed down through history, with a history of thousands of years, some of these festivals express the people's historical figures Some of these festivals express people's remembrance of historical figures, some cooperate with agricultural production and labor life, some come from myths and legends, and some convey people's good wishes for life. In short, these traditional festivals and customs reflect the economic situation of the ancient people of China, living habits and morality, traditional festivals are the people of successive generations *** with the creation of spiritual civilization of the precipitation, is the Chinese nation's "roots".

It's one thing to say that traditional festivals have high cultural value, but it's another thing to say that there is a huge cultural contrast in reality. In fact, the new period, especially into the new century, we and traditional festivals are drifting away, there are many traditional festivals now become "food festival", or businessmen to promote the "sales festival", nowadays over the festival, the commercial speculation more and more fiery, usually are Today's festivals, commercial hype is getting hotter and hotter, usually "cultural stage economic opera", the meaning of the festival itself is more and more people forget. In order to boost consumption, Labor Day, National Day has become a golden week, the Spring Festival is the "food and drink festival", "March 8" Women's Day is a shopping festival, the Western Valentine's Day, Christmas and other festivals is the businessmen's day of struggle. Festivals and folklore are a national festival, it is definitely not a simple food, drink, clothing, or simple material consumption.

As we all know, people's need for festivals is mainly spiritual and emotional needs, the emotional value of the festival is the main core of the performance of our nation more distinctive, more distinctive, such as the people must eat the Mid-Autumn Festival reunion dinner and the Spring Festival New Year's Eve dinner, even if you can't come to the "thousands of miles of ****Chan Juan! "Even if you can't come, you have to be together, which is why the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Spring Festival have been created and valued, and this need is a manifestation of national affinity and cohesion, which is the biggest spiritual core of our nation, which has been gathered for 5,000 years and has never been dispersed.

A festival has many carriers, it must have a legend, there must be a story, such as the Mid-Autumn Festival, Chang'e Run to the Moon, Wu Gang cut down the tree, the Dragon Boat Festival, Qu Yuan threw himself into the river. Secondly, it must have activities and ceremonies, such as songs and dances, dragon boat races, trekking, ascending the heights, sticking willows, sticking mugwort, sticking cornelian cherry, etc. Each festival has a rich content. Each festival is rich in content, and these are able to create and show the kind of elegance, grace and romantic temperament of the Chinese nation. Spring Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Chung Yeung Festival, Ching Ming Festival, these festivals are in harmony with nature, is the unity of heaven and mankind, in these festivals fully expresses the spiritual needs of the Chinese nation, sends people's beautiful ideals and wishes for life, shows the Chinese nation's excellent cultural connotations and values.

With the changes in society and the development of the times, especially in the face of globalization and the impact of commercialization, a grim reality is that many of our traditional festivals have been interrupted, and some of them have even existed in name only. The reason why some traditional festivals have been interrupted or even died out is that their spiritual connotations have been forgotten and their spiritual carriers no longer exist. There are two main reasons for this, one is the change in people's lifestyles. The Mid-Autumn Festival is about enjoying the moon. In ancient times, when the festival was celebrated, it was very beautiful for people to enjoy the moon in the courtyard full of osmanthus trees, listen to the story of Chang'e's journey to the moon, sing songs to the moon, and ask for the sky with a glass of wine. However, what we see now is a brightly lit city, with glittering neon lights and tall buildings everywhere, the moon is not easy to see, and people are estranged from the moon, so people's interest in enjoying the moon has gradually faded. Secondly, people do not consciously recognize the spiritual value of traditional festivals. For a long time, many people think that festivals are just about eating good food and wearing good clothes. By neglecting the cultural and spiritual values of these traditional festivals, these festivals have been artificially watered down by us, especially after entering into a commercialized society, traditional festivals have been pushed into the market and become a time for businessmen to make money, which has resulted in the interruption of a lot of civilization in some aspects, which is the result of our pursuit of materialization.

The traditional cultural connotations of the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Ching Ming Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Chung Yeung Festival have been hollowed out, injected with commercial content and labeled as "economic". Firecrackers have been banned, the flavor of the year has faded, with the decay of interest in festivals and festive atmosphere of the increasingly diluted, traditional festivals in the eyes of the people have become thin and pale. Now a lot of times the people often feel very lost during the holidays, the most common feeling is that the New Year is more and more no flavor of the New Year. Do not know how to spend the festival, this loss is actually a spiritual loss. Many people also blame the young people, in fact, is not to blame, it and the spiritual strength of the whole nation closely linked to the abandonment of the cultural connotations of the traditional festivals, New Year's Eve is the New Year's Eve dinner; Mid-Autumn Festival is the mooncake; Dragon Boat Festival has become the exhibition of rice dumplings, Lantern Festival has become a display of glutinous rice dumplings ...... You said that every festival is only a kind of food. Even if it has a long history, moving legends, beautiful rituals, the people will not take it seriously. In such a situation, even if more scholars Tongren, folklore experts appeared to appeal for national legislation to protect, the effect will be how? It is really thought-provoking.

Traditional festivals contain cultural identity

In different cultures, traditional festivals are a manifestation of a particular culture, with their own cultural characteristics. For example, there is a clear cultural difference between Christmas in the West and the Spring Festival in China. Christmas is closely related to religious traditions, while the Spring Festival is a product of agrarian civilization and familialism; Christmas unfolds on religious anniversaries, manifesting itself as a group revelry in a public **** place, while the Spring Festival takes place in the post-harvest farming interval, manifesting itself as a family gathering in a private space; Christmas expresses the worship of the Personality of God, while the Spring Festival expresses gratitude to the gods of agriculture and the ancestors, and so on. This difference makes the festivals an important way for different ethnic groups to express their respective cultural identities.

However, in recent years, Chinese people's interest in and enthusiasm for the Spring Festival have greatly diminished, and it's not uncommon to hear people sigh helplessly that the flavor of the year has faded. In stark contrast, Christmas seems to have gradually become an essential part of daily life for some people in China.

Behind this cultural landscape, it's clear that businesses and the media are contributing, sparing no effort to mobilize all forces to create a hot atmosphere for these cultural celebrations because of the huge commercial interests at stake. However, Chinese folk are not lacking in festival cultural resources, and from the point of view of economic exploitation, these festivals are no worse than foreign festivals, which should be at a disadvantage in China, where there is a lack of Western cultural traditions. In this way, the prevalence of foreign festivals in Chinese folklore is a bit mind-boggling.

The problem of cultural identity can only arise when different cultures meet, that is to say, people will only have the problem of "who am I" when they are faced with the "other" that is different from themselves. It is often the case that the question of "who am I" in the light of different cultures can easily reinforce cultural self-identification driven by exclusionary feelings and manifest itself in emphasizing the superiority of one's own culture by undermining other cultures. However, there is a special case that cannot be ignored: when the other is exceptionally powerful and is imagined as a model to be followed or imitated, people may over-glorify the other, or even over-reflect on themselves, thus forming a self-identity of "love-hate". In essence, the rise of foreign festivals in Chinese folklore is a concrete manifestation of this particular self-identity, although it has appeared in a milder form without showing too much obvious dislike of their own culture.

Of course, such a view of the current phenomenon of Chinese folk festivals seems to have over-interpretation and fuss, after all, it is now different from the time when foreign festivals were first emerging, and people are more curious about foreign customs to "get addicted to foreigners", and it seems that they haven't had a chance to think about it before they have been pushed by businessmen and the media into a state of euphoria and excitement. They seem to have been pushed into the carnival of the festival by businessmen and the media before they had time to think about it. However, not thinking and over-reflecting are equally harmful, and it is hard to imagine that a nation lacking cultural self-awareness can develop healthily in a world characterized by cultural pluralism. Therefore, for those Chinese who are keen to celebrate foreign festivals, it is extremely necessary to calm down and think carefully.

This kind of thinking should not only be directed at the celebration of foreign festivals themselves, but should also have a clear understanding of them at their roots. This requires that the public be trained to build up a sense of cultural self-awareness, so that they can look at their own and other people's cultures in a rational way. As far as the overall development of China is concerned, the relative backwardness of material culture is a reality that has to be recognized. However, despite the fact that the developed material culture of the West constantly stings our pride, catching up does not mean that we must give up our spiritual culture, which is the root of our nation, at the price.

Perhaps we don't need to blame the public too much for their enthusiasm for foreign festivals, but it is necessary to think y about it. In my opinion, in the increasingly frequent contact and exchanges between different cultures today, to awaken the people's cultural consciousness is a fundamental task. Only in this way can rational cultural identity be realized and national culture embark on the path of healthy development.

The festival mode should be reformed

Traditional Chinese folk festivals have formed their own rhythmic order, and have their own rich connotations, so China's "Nongjia Calendar", a lineage of the world, has naturally become a masterpiece of the intangible cultural heritage of mankind, which itself, together with its major folk festivals, should be classified as an object of conservation. It, together with its major folklore festivals, should be listed as an object of key protection. It will continue to maintain its inherent cultural vitality. I think the most important thing now is to re-understand and build our festivals, to study our festival culture, create our festival culture, restore the cultural connotation of these traditional festivals through a variety of forms, and return them to a "true face". A nation's culture is no use relying on the appeal of a few people, it needs a kind of self-awareness of the whole nation, and this self-awareness is a kind of consciousness of the spirit of culture.

Traditional festivals are the traditional culture of the station, is used to carry a sense of national identity, but also the inheritance of the national cultural life, is an important symbol of a nation differentiated from another nation. From last year, "more than a hundred members of the proposal to increase the Qingming, Mid-Autumn Festival and other national holidays for legal holidays" to consider the traditional festivals packaged collective declaration of "World Heritage" and so on, we are in the revival of traditional festivals, the habit of "law", "system to pave the way to the future," and the system of "law". ", take the system to pave the way to revival, but ignored the roots of traditional festivals - the cultural origins of the guardian.

The festivals that have been passed down from fire to fire always have some sentimental things that make our hearts soft and fill the earth with warmth and warmth. Traditional festivals highlight the complexity of the rituals, elegant and refined, courteous and polite, depending on the education of the cultural life, there is a high degree of aesthetics behind the national identity is a high degree of traditional cultural identity. Such as the Dragon Boat Festival in memory of Qu Yuan, dragon boat racing, folk songs sung: "May 5, is the Dragon Boat Festival. The door is covered with mugwort, and the fragrance fills the hall. Eat rice dumplings, sprinkle sugar. Dragon boat launching joyful." This similar sense of pride in festivals is found in every corner of classical culture. We complain about modern people "Chongyang Festival" should see: it is a lot of people on their own cultural awareness of the lack of enthusiasm, lack of self-confidence in cultural concepts, which makes the traditional festivals "full of earth". The strength of cultural self-confidence and the ability to absorb foreign civilization is directly proportional to the cultural confidence, there is enough cultural confidence, the party has the cultural character of the sea, and not to "abandon me to foreign".

With the acceleration of the process of modernization, the pace of life of the people of the country is accelerating day by day, the use of highways, cell phones, computers and other office communication appliances, and the resulting convenience, although to varying degrees, to reduce the intensity of people's labor, but also increased the load of each specific life; all kinds of fame and fortune on the wind and fire to catch up on the scene of the dilemma of employment, title, promotion and raising a family with all kinds of pressures, together with the Daily firewood, rice, oil and salt, ushered in ...... wandering in the city streets, just like a song sung in the song: "the good scenery along the way did not carefully think, back home is still the same push mill pulling ...... can no longer live like this! " People in the exhaustion of running in the desire to have a little leisure, put down a restless heart; desire to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city of reinforced concrete, in the quiet of nature to savor a taste of life ...... In short, the desire to live a little more margin.

The traditional festivals of the holiday mode to some of the old and new, the key is to awaken our cultural consciousness. The Spring Festival is "legal", the holiday economy is in full swing, but the revival of the Spring Festival cultural traditions is still a long way to go. If the Qingming not on the grave, Mid-Autumn Festival not to enjoy the moon, the sun does not ascend, such a "legal" holiday can revive what? Culture is connected, culture is also derived. Lack of cultural self-awareness in the state of comprehensive and systematic revival of traditional Chinese culture under the premise of "statutory" can only be reduced to formalism of a cultural exercise - because the holiday, in the final analysis, is a cultural phenomenon, the traditional holiday is always associated with religion, rituals, celebrations, gatherings, etc., can not be relied on. Traditional festivals are always associated with religion, rituals, celebrations, gatherings, etc., and cannot be passed on through the barriers of the system. What we need to find and restore is the historical repercussions, to awaken the surviving folk culture.

If we stick to our own traditions, and do not have the ability to embrace new cultures, the traditional festival culture can only be impoverished and atrophied. "Although the Zhou is an old country, its life is new", this is the cultural generosity of the Chinese people three thousand years ago. The circulation of festivals is the result of a long history of choice, society has developed, the connotation of traditional festival culture must also develop. If we do not improve the festival concept and way of festivals, still eat and drink as the head, human gifts as the road, then, even if the statutory traditional festivals, is nothing more than to give us another excuse to eat and drink and the reason for human contacts, nothing more than to let the businessmen a few more carnivals, the cultural function of the traditional festivals emasculated, so that it has become an unorthodox economic prey. In today's increasingly frequent contact and exchange between different cultures, awakening the people's cultural consciousness, rational cultural identity can be realized, the revival of traditional festivals, the reconstruction of the rites and music of God's state is not just a dream. If we only seek to be lively, only ask the economy, ignoring the cultural connotation of the festival, the lack of cultural self-awareness, we should take what revival of traditional festivals?

Currently, China's legal holidays, the Spring Festival, May Day and National Day three "Golden Week", only the Spring Festival reflects the characteristics of the traditional culture of the Chinese nation, the other traditional festivals, although the folk have retained, but has not been stipulated as an official legal holiday. The fundamental way out lies in the innovation of traditional festivals of the festival mode, so that traditional festivals more relaxed leisure, to give people more free entertainment time and space, so that it is more in line with the needs of modern people on the festival. The legalization of traditional festivals is only to determine the traditional festivals in the form of law, but it can not change people's preference for traditional festivals or boredom. Since people lack interest in traditional festivals, there is no way to revive traditional festivals by legalizing them through official intervention.

(The author is a professor at the School of Communication at East China Normal University and president of the Shanghai Folk Culture Society)