as far as history and social culture are concerned, the local complex and family complex are the basis of patriotism and nationalism. In China, without the local complex and the family complex, patriotism and nationalism have become trees without roots and water without sources. Undoubtedly, the local complex and the family complex, as well as the patriotism and nationalism generated on this basis, are the foundation of the nation, the foundation of the country, a powerful spiritual adhesive that unites more than one billion people, and the most valuable cultural heritage of the Chinese nation.
In the past seven days, the Chinese New Year has been celebrated happily in prosperous cities and remote villages, in all parts of China and even in places where Chinese people live in the world. Celebrating the Spring Festival has become the central topic of more than one billion people, and all kinds of news in political, economic and cultural fields generated by celebrating the Spring Festival have also become the focus of the whole society to some extent. It can be seen that in a specific period, celebrating the Spring Festival has a great influence on China people.
From the perspective of folklore, traditional festivals are carriers of national culture, which condense the spirit of a nation, mark its style, highlight its value and show its pursuit. The Spring Festival is undoubtedly the most important traditional festival of the Chinese nation, and its cultural implications cannot be overestimated. At a time when this joyous New Year is about to pass, it may be meaningful to make a rough modern interpretation of the traditional Spring Festival.
Spring Festival is the product of agricultural society. In ancient China, "Spring Festival" first refers to the festival sequence of spring, which is basically synonymous with the word spring, and later refers to New Year's Day of the lunar calendar year. In the agricultural society, the greatest influence on material production is the weather. "Cold comes and summer goes, autumn harvest and winter storage" is a true portrayal of agricultural production. In the article "Spring Festival in Beijing", Mr. Lao She listed various phenomena of Chinese New Year and pointed out that they were all related to the agricultural society, which was absolutely right. The food culture during the Spring Festival is based on the rich and colorful products in the agricultural society. The entertainment culture during the Spring Festival is based on the winter leisure in agricultural farming. The culture of offering sacrifices to the gods during the Spring Festival is based on farmers' praying for good weather in heaven so that the crops can be plentiful. Almost all the cultural forms during the Spring Festival are typical manifestations of agricultural culture.
culture in a broad sense refers to the sum of material wealth and spiritual concepts, but when people use the word culture, they more refer to spiritual concepts. The spiritual concept of agricultural culture comes from agricultural farming methods. If we look at the agricultural farming methods a little, we will find that its biggest feature is the fixity of the region. Agricultural people don't live by water like nomadic people, and they have no fixed place; The agricultural nation is not as profit-seeking as the commercial nation, and there is no trace of it. Agricultural nationalities have cultivated on fixed land for generations, and passed it on from generation to generation. Over time, two very obvious ideas have emerged, namely, their great attachment to their hometown land and their great attention to family affection. The former is a local concept, while the latter is a family concept. In China, regardless of the passage of time, social changes, government changes, and personnel metabolism, the concept of local culture and family ties has long been a deep complex, rooted in the bone marrow of Chinese people. The ancient poems such as "now, nearing my village, meeting people, I dare not ask a single question" and "I miss my relatives twice during the festive season" precisely reflect this complex. As far as history and social culture are concerned, local complex and family complex are the basis of patriotism and nationalism. In China, without the local complex and family complex, patriotism and nationalism have become rootless trees and passive water. Undoubtedly, the local complex and the family complex, as well as the patriotism and nationalism generated on this basis, are the foundation of the nation, the foundation of the country, a powerful spiritual adhesive that unites more than one billion people, and the most valuable cultural heritage of the Chinese nation. The Spring Festival is just such a meaning. Hundreds of millions of people in China, regardless of the cold and exhaustion, regardless of the long journey, travel and fatigue, have to go home and get together with their hometown folks. Isn't this the biggest nostalgia? Hundreds of millions or even billions of people * * * watch CCTV's Spring Festival Gala. With the programs of the gala, they share joys, sings and laughs, creating a strong atmosphere of the big family of the Chinese nation. Isn't this the greatest affection? The powerful spiritual power generated by this traditional culture should push us to build a well-off society faster. A few years ago, some scholars put forward the theory of "cultural power", which caused a heated discussion in the theoretical circle. The author believes that, as a social phenomenon, the Spring Festival can completely prove the theory of "cultural power".
It is worth recalling that the classic Marxist writer said: Tradition is the inertia of history. Then, as a traditional festival, has the traditional significance of the Spring Festival and some aspects of modern society become unsuitable? In fact, the Spring Festival in China has changed a lot for decades, and the significance of rituals such as praying to God and offering sacrifices to ancestors has been greatly weakened. However, it is undeniable that the Spring Festival still has some negative factors for modern society. Economically speaking, the economic phenomenon caused by the Spring Festival is actually an abnormal economic phenomenon, which is contrary to the market economy in modern society. Because the mode of production in industrial society is very different from that in agricultural society. Industrial production depends on market demand, not on the changes of seasons and seasons. Industrial production is more regular and balanced than agricultural production. Except for some man-made specific circumstances, there are few cases of great cold and great heat, ups and downs. The agricultural economy is a seasonal economy with uneven busy and leisure. Since the Spring Festival originated from the agricultural society, the Spring Festival economy is of course a seasonal economy, which will inevitably bring certain obstacles and influences to modern industrial and commercial operations. From a cultural perspective, although the significance of the Spring Festival can express the nostalgia complex, enhance the degree of affection, thus rallying people's hearts, which is conducive to social stability and peace. However, while paying too much attention to the nostalgia of the country and the family affection, the other side of its coin may be the neglect of the rigid legal rules of modern society, which may not be beneficial to the rule of law construction in modern society. The phenomenon of "back door", "nepotism" and "related households" in China society has been repeatedly banned. In a deep sense, it has something to do with the over-emphasis on human feelings and the deep-rooted concept of family affection in traditional culture. Facts have proved that the Spring Festival is also a period of high incidence of unhealthy trends in society in a year. Of course, I don't think that local family ties and other traditional cultures are inherently irreconcilable with the legal rules of modern society, but you can't ignore their great differences in expression.
Tradition is often a double-edged sword, which accumulates history and enriches culture, but its ideas and cultural identity formed in a specific historical stage may also hinder the penetration of new ideas and ideas. As a traditional culture, the Spring Festival is also a double-edged sword. Its positive influence has long been known to all people in China. However, some customs that follow the tradition and are not suitable for modern society are felt by people, but they may not be deeply understood. How to publicize the positive influence of the Spring Festival culture, dispel the negative influence of the traditional culture of the Spring Festival, and endow the Spring Festival with more modern significance and flavor of the times is exactly the topic that we can calm down and consider after celebrating this peaceful and beautiful Spring Festival. Today, it is of great significance to interpret the ideological background of the Spring Festival from a modern perspective.
In recent years, with the development of society and the continuous opening up, many people gradually feel that the Spring Festival is no longer as attractive as before, and the taste of New Year is getting weaker and weaker.
Professor Tao, a well-known folklorist and director of the Folk Culture Research Center of Minzu University of China, said in an interview that the material life is getting richer and richer now, and people feel that the New Year is boring. It is definitely not because there is any material deficiency, but because the spirit is not fully satisfied. In the memory of our nation, the Spring Festival is the most important and lively festival, which includes astronomical calendars, folk beliefs, weddings and funerals, food, clothing, housing and transportation and other cultural phenomena. Now, the Spring Festival has lost many of its original cultural connotations, so everyone feels that the taste of the year is weak and psychologically there is a sense of dissatisfaction.
Professor Tao believes that with the development of society, people's life rhythm is obviously accelerated, and cultural life styles are richer than before, which may indeed impact the Spring Festival, making some traditional rituals born in the farming era no longer suitable for modern society. Of course, some customs or rituals of the Spring Festival may no longer adapt to the development of modern society, which is a question of folk custom renewal, but the theme and essence of the Spring Festival will never be out of date.
Mid-Autumn Festival should become a national legal holiday as soon as possible
Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival. When people invite friends to enjoy the moon at night, many people also express their regrets: the 15th day of the eighth lunar month is not a legal holiday.
In recent years, China has achieved remarkable economic growth, and China people's material living standards have also been significantly improved. Why do people show more and more interest in the historical traditions of the Chinese nation, including traditional festivals? Tradition and modernity, a pair of seemingly opposite concepts and things, are being given new connotations and explanations. The more modern a society is, the more people need spiritual comfort, spiritual support and emotional expression. After people's inner world needs to increase, they have a rich historical tradition of accumulating spiritual resources, and it is more possible and necessary to resurrect. This is no exception for China, which is becoming more and more modernized.
More than 81 years ago, the British philosopher Russell visited China. After nearly two years' investigation in China, he thought that the Chinese nation is a nation with a very free spirit and knows how to be happy. What he is worried about is whether the rationality and efficiency of modern society will give up the pursuit of traditional ideals of goodness and beauty after China is as "modern" as the West.
In today's reflection on what this "wise man of the century" said many years ago, what China people should think about is: How to inherit the traditional freedom and happiness in the "modern" framework? In other words, how to be a China person with good ethics and aesthetic emotion in modern society?
In this respect, the traditional festivals in China can play a powerful role in nourishing the soul. The ceremonies of traditional festivals have been loved by the Chinese nation for thousands of years. They are a manifestation of the inner feelings of the Chinese nation and contain rich aesthetic ideals and ethical pursuits. Just like any nation with its own historical tradition, the basic personal and social virtues, such as people's religious significance, emotional edification of aesthetic significance, and ethical and moral significance, are scattered in the spiritual ideals contained in those traditional festivals in China.
In the history of the Chinese nation for thousands of years, around these festivals, the poets of the past dynasties left too many beautiful poems and legends. These legends and characters are not rigid ethical dogmas, but vivid displays of a nation's soul. Paul S. Rui Enshi, an American diplomat who served as ambassador to China for a long time during Yuan Shikai's administration, wrote with deep feelings when he attended the ceremony of worshipping Confucius in China in 1913: "The most profound thing about the ceremony was the singing expression, the music and the very solemn attitude of the people who attended the ceremony ... I can't help but feel that China people are unwilling to abandon these traditions completely because they have the instinct of loving music. "
It should be noted that these traditional festivals, which have been circulated for thousands of years, and their ethical and aesthetic connotations still have important social and life significance today. Why do you need to emphasize these festivals and think that they should be revised as national statutory holidays after China is "modernized"? We should also see the fact that people in traditional society have a lot of leisure time. With the popularization of modern market economy lifestyle and bureaucratic management, and the standardization and intellectualization of social life, traditional festivals will inevitably be impacted by the shortage of time guarantee if they are not protected by corresponding national legislation. Therefore, in the form of legislation, all or most of China's five traditional festivals-Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Chongyang Festival-will be upgraded from a simple folk festival form to a national holiday for holiday protection, so that people can have time to feel China's own historical traditions and enjoy the spiritual pleasure brought by festivals in such festivals.