traditional festivals and national cultural identity

Zhong Fulan

Recently, the topic of traditional festivals in China has become a hot topic in the media. Following last year, an Asian country was preparing to declare "Dragon Boat Festival" as its cultural heritage to UNESCO. At present, it has been included in the national heritage list and will soon declare "representative works of human oral heritage and intangible heritage" to the United Nations. After Ji Baocheng, a representative of the National People's Congress, called for traditional festivals, many NPC deputies and CPPCC members suggested to increase New Year's Eve, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival as legal holidays in China. Many folklore scholars have recently suggested that traditional festivals such as New Year's Eve, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival should be added as legal holidays, and traditional festivals should be revived through official intervention. They believe that Chinese people all over the world attach great importance to traditional festivals in China. In Hongkong, the Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Double Ninth Festival are five traditional festivals and are designated as legal holidays. Traditional festivals are the carriers of Chinese culture, which are not only diverse in forms and loved by people, but also loved by families and even the whole nation. They can play a role in preserving the roots of the Chinese nation and promoting the soul of the nation. Others think that to build an economic power, it must be supported by a strong culture, and celebrating traditional festivals is also a subtle patriotic education.

However, many people have put forward different views. They believe that the most fundamental reason for the decline of traditional festivals in China lies in its obvious characteristics of farming times, which can no longer meet the needs of people in modern society. Due to the busy and tiring work at ordinary times, people's demand for festivals in modern society is warmth and romance, complete relaxation, living their own life and living their own personality. However, traditional festivals bring people just the opposite. The fatigue of the journey, social intercourse, old-fashioned customs and snobbish comparison often drown people's personality in the secular sex, which makes people exhausted and have no fun at all. Decline has become a necessity.

With the heated discussion about the inevitable decline of the protection of China folk festivals and traditional festivals, the author has no intention to join the debate between these two opinions, but just wants to think from another angle, ask some questions and ask scholars for advice.

cultural value of traditional festivals

China traditional festivals are intertwined with various factors in the history of our nation, such as politics, culture, religion, especially economy, etc. Although the backgrounds of each festival are different, generally speaking, once it is produced, it has relative stability. Often, the production of a festival custom is intrinsically and inevitably related to the psychological characteristics of the nation, so it is handed down from generation to generation. As far as the Spring Festival is concerned, whether it is official or private, whether it is dignitaries or ordinary people, it is celebrated on the same day.

after thousands of years of free and spontaneous inheritance, China traditional festivals have already formed the contents and manifestations of the great life of the whole nation, which have been handed down from generation to generation. The cultural connotation and extension of each festival are relatively stable, perfect and harmonious, showing great cultural value.

The unique imprint of China people's production and labor. Traditional festivals in China are an important part of folk culture in China, and they are the specific content of "Year of the Year". In the context of farming civilization, festivals are solar season scheduled by the combination of year, month, day and climate changes, and they are confirmed by the cyclical law of crop growth cycle. As early as Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins, we have seen a very complete ancient calendar year. It forms a huge composite system with ancient knowledge of astronomy, calendar, solar terms and phenology. The ancients said "four seasons and eight festivals", among which the seasons of 24 solar terms are very important in the composition of folk festivals. Here, the concept of "festival" is to decompose the gradual process of seasons at the age of 2 into the same spacing as grass festival and bamboo festival, and call the time when solar terms cross each other "festival", which means "festival". For thousands of years, it has maintained the characteristics of perfect harmony between the rhythm of production and life of farming culture and the rhythm of natural seasonal meteorology and ecological environment.

China's ideal pursuit of harmony and perfection. Looking back at various traditional festivals in China, almost all of them are related to the movement of the sun and the moon. In the history, the arrangement of folk festivals pays special attention to the twelve months of the year, which is almost the most basic convention mark of festivals in China farming society. The full moon is the fifteenth day of a month. In ancient Qin and Han dynasties, alchemists and Taoists calculated the duration of the month, and there was another saying of "three yuan". They thought that the god of "heavenly officials" was in charge of "blessing" and the birthday was on the fifteenth day of the first month, which was "Shangyuan Festival", so the first day of looking at the sun in ancient times was agreed to be "Shangyuan Festival" and Daqing Festival was developed into "Lantern Festival". It is also believed that the god of "local officials" is in charge of "forgiveness of sins", and the birthday is on July 15, which is "Zhongyuan Festival", which was agreed in ancient times, and every family held a big ancestor sacrifice and became a big festival. It is also believed that the god of "water official" is in charge of "solving the disaster", and the birthday is on October 15, which is called "Xiayuan Festival" in ancient times and has also developed into a festival. The most noteworthy is the Mid-Autumn Festival in August. Originally, "Mid-Autumn Festival" only refers to August, but later, August 15th became the "Mid-Autumn Festival" because it is in the middle of Sanqiu. A full moon in the sky can make a strong man cry; Every Spring Festival, wanderers from the ends of the earth go home for reunion. For thousands of years, China people have closely coordinated their own life rhythm with the full moon and the lack of moon in nature, thus forming 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 China people's thinking and memory. Since ancient times, China's agricultural calendar has always used the method of "year, month and day" to arrange the months and days, which is very complicated. Many of them are regarded as auspicious days or memorial days, and it is difficult to remember them and gradually disappear. However, in many scattered auspicious days and memorial days, people have habitually selected the days when the code numbers of the month and day overlap with each other and passed them down as festivals. So there was the "first month" festival; "February 2" Spring Dragon Festival, commonly known as "Dragon Head Up" Day; "March 3" Shangsi Festival is also a song festival of many ethnic minorities; "May 5th" Dragon Boat Festival; "June 6th" Heavenly Day, commonly known as "Sun Insect Festival"; "July 7" Chinese Valentine's Day, commonly known as the Begging Festival; "September 9" Double Ninth Festival. In China people's holiday concept, the overlapping of the number codes of the month and the day is auspicious and mysterious, among which the "May 5th Duanyang Festival" and the "September 9th Double Ninth Festival" are regarded as major festivals except the New Year Festival.

why are there festivals? However, the earth does not turn as usual, and the sun does not rise and set every day. Yes, I think the most fundamental meaning of this "festival" is still in this "festival". It is related to the rhythm of nature and human society. China is a traditional agricultural country. In the country based on agriculture, the origin of festivals is often related to agricultural activities. "Four Seasons and Eight Festivals", such as the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Qixi Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Chongyang Festival and New Year's Eve, are all inseparable from agricultural activities. Work at sunrise and rest at sunset. Spring, summer, autumn and winter, as time goes by, people's lives should have a rhythm, so as to adapt to the rhythm of nature. "The way of civil and military affairs, one relaxation at a time", the folk festivals just reflect the rhythm of this life. Apart from all kinds of beautiful legends and wonderful explanations, the most basic reason why festivals appear is to meet people's living needs-people who work hard need to adjust, rest and entertain. Festivals are a series of buffer mechanisms naturally formed by people to adjust their lives, and people express their joy and wishes and yearning for the future through various traditional festivals. It can be said that festivals are the spiritual and material needs of human beings, and no nation in the world does not have its own traditional folk festivals.

Great contrast of reality

Traditional New Year's Festivals are formed by grasping nature, including fixed festivals and specific cultural activities. Spring Festival, Lantern Festival and Qingming Festival are all passed down through history, with a history of thousands of years. Some of these festivals express people's commemoration of historical figures, some cooperate with agricultural production and working life, some come from myths and legends, and some convey people's good wishes for life. In a word, these traditional festivals and customs reflect the economic situation, living habits and moral features of the ancient Chinese people. Traditional festivals are the precipitation of spiritual civilization created by the people of all ages and are the "roots" of the Chinese nation.

It is one thing to say that traditional festivals have high cultural value, but the huge cultural contrast in reality is another. In fact, in the new era, especially since the beginning of the new century, we have gradually drifted away from traditional festivals. Many traditional festivals have now become "food festivals" or "sales festivals" for businessmen to promote sales. Nowadays, festivals in commercial speculation are becoming more and more popular, and they are usually "cultural and economic operas", but the significance of the festivals themselves has been forgotten by more and more people. In order to stimulate consumption, Labor Day and National Day have become Golden Week, Spring Festival is "Eating and Drinking Festival", March 8th Women's Day is a shopping festival, and western foreign festivals such as Valentine's Day and Christmas Day are even more important for businesses. Festive folklore is a grand ceremony of a nation, which is definitely not a simple eating, drinking and wearing, or a simple material consumption.

as we all know, people's needs for festivals are mainly spiritual and emotional needs, and emotional value is the most important core of festivals, which is more distinctive and distinctive for our nation. For example, the Mid-Autumn Festival reunion dinner and the Spring Festival dinner that ordinary people must eat, even if they can't come, they must be "a thousand miles away", and their hearts must be together, which is also the emergence and attention of Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival.

A festival has many carriers. It must have legends and stories. For example, the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon and WU GANG cut down trees in the Mid-Autumn Festival and Quyuan threw himself into the river in the Dragon Boat Festival. Second, it must have activities and ceremonies, such as singing and dancing, dragon boat racing, hiking, climbing, willow planting, mugwort planting, dogwood planting and so on. Every festival has rich contents, and these can create and show the elegant, graceful and romantic temperament of the Chinese nation. Spring Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Double Ninth Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, these festivals are in harmony with nature and are the unity of man and nature. In these festivals, the spiritual needs of the Chinese nation are fully expressed, people's beautiful ideals and wishes for life are placed, and the excellent cultural connotation and value orientation of the Chinese nation are displayed.

With the social changes and the development of the times, especially in the face of the impact of globalization and commercialization, a grim reality is that many of our traditional festivals have been interrupted, and some have even existed in name only. In fact, the reason why some traditional festivals are interrupted or even disappeared is that its spiritual connotation has been forgotten and its spiritual carrier no longer exists. There are two main reasons, one is the change of people's lifestyle. The Mid-Autumn Festival is to enjoy the moon. In ancient times, people enjoyed the moon in the yard full of osmanthus trees, listened to the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon's story, sang songs to the moon and asked for wine. It was very beautiful. But now what we see is a lighted city, full of shining neon lights and high-rise buildings. It is not easy to see the blocked moon, and people are alienated from the moon, so people's interest in enjoying the moon has gradually faded. Second, people do not consciously realize the spiritual value of traditional festivals. For a long time, many people think that festivals are nothing more than eating good food and wearing good clothes. Due to ignoring the cultural and spiritual values of these traditional festivals, these festivals have been artificially diluted by us. Especially after entering the commercial society, traditional festivals have been pushed to the market and become an opportunity for businessmen to make money. As a result, many civilizations have been interrupted in some aspects, which is the result of our pursuit of materialization.

The traditional cultural connotations of Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, Mid-Autumn Festival and Double Ninth Festival have been hollowed out, and commercial content has been injected and labeled as "economy". Firecrackers have been banned, and the taste of the year has faded. With the attenuation of holiday interest and the dilution of holiday atmosphere, traditional festivals have become thin and pale in people's eyes. Nowadays, many people often feel very lost during the holidays. The biggest feeling is that the Chinese New Year is getting less and less interesting. I don't know how to spend the festival. This kind of loss is actually a kind of spiritual loss. Many people still complain about young people, but they can't complain. It is closely related to the spiritual strength of the whole nation and abandons the cultural connotation of traditional festivals. New Year's Eve is the New Year's Eve. Mid-autumn festival is moon cake; The Dragon Boat Festival has become an exhibition of zongzi, and the Lantern Festival has become an exhibition of glutinous rice balls ... You said that there is only one kind of food left in every festival, and even if it has a long history, touching legends and beautiful ceremonies, ordinary people will not take it seriously. Under such circumstances, even if more scholars and folk experts come forward to appeal for national legislative protection, what will the effect be? It's really thought-provoking

Cultural identity implied by traditional festivals

In different cultures, traditional festivals are a symbol of a specific culture with their own cultural characteristics. For example, there are obvious cultural differences between Christmas in the West and Spring Festival in China. Christmas is closely related to religious traditions, while Spring Festival is the product of farming civilization and familism. Christmas is held on religious memorial day, which is manifested as a group carnival in public places, while the Spring Festival is held during the agricultural intermission after harvest, which is embodied as a family gathering in private space; Christmas expresses the worship of personality gods, while Spring Festival expresses gratitude to agricultural gods and ancestors, and so on. This difference makes festivals an important way for different ethnic groups to express their cultural identity.

However, in recent years, China people's interest and enthusiasm for celebrating the Spring Festival has been greatly reduced, and people often hear people's helpless sighs that the taste of the Spring Festival has faded. In sharp contrast, Christmas seems to have gradually become an indispensable part of the daily life of some people in China.

behind this cultural landscape, it is obvious that merchants and the media have contributed to it. The huge commercial interests make them spare no effort to mobilize all their efforts to create a fiery atmosphere for these cultural celebrations. However, China people are not short of festival cultural resources, and from the perspective of economic development, these festivals are not worse than foreign festivals. In China, which lacks western cultural traditions, foreign festivals should be at a disadvantage. As a result, the prevalence of foreign festivals among the people in China is a bit inconceivable.

The problem of cultural identity can only appear when different cultures meet, that is to say, people will have the problem consciousness of "who am I" only when they face the "other" different from themselves. Usually, under the contrast of different cultures, the questioning of "who am I" is very easy to strengthen cultural self-identity driven by exclusive emotions, and it is manifested in emphasizing the superiority of one's own culture by derogating from other cultures. However, a special case that can't be ignored is that when the other is extremely powerful and imagined as an example of learning or imitation, it may make people over-beautify the other and even cause excessive reflection on themselves, thus forming a kind of "love-hate" self-identity. In essence, the rise of foreign festivals among the people in China is a concrete manifestation of this special self-identity, although it appears in a relatively mild appearance, without showing too much obvious rejection of its own culture.

Of course, it seems to be too much to explain and make a mountain out of a molehill to look at the current phenomenon of foreign festivals among the people in China. After all, it is different now from when foreign festivals were first celebrated, and people are more curious about foreign customs.