Scholarly record

FESTIVITIES AND HOLIDAYS IN THE BORDER-ZONE: THE CASE OF LATGALE

Korolova, J., Badins, Z., Kacane, I., Kovzele, O., Brakovska, A.

Abstract

Festivities and holidays have to be regarded as the antithesis of everyday life and routine. Nowadays social isolation is one of the reasons leading to the collapse of the most popular traditions followed by a human. The social change initiated by historical and political events, progress and development, on the one hand, and decline of moral and ethical values, on the other, marks out the contemporary epoch as the one shaped by loneliness and †mental' paralysis. The shift that might become crucial in the perception of the world enforces the acceptance of the social isolations due to the ideology named as †life-denying'. Festivity culture is based on a tight synthesis between religious and profane spheres which, despite the changeable conditions of time and space, thus perform the functions of individual's socialization, integrating this individual into the system of culture and society as its potential continuator. The correlation between festivities and holidays according to the cycle of seasonal changes, their content and ideological fulfilment, their importance and functions in the society, taking into account the historical and cultural experience of two different denominations (Catholic and Old Believers) in the South Eastern region of Latvia – Latgale – are the central object of this research. The study on festivities and their transformations in the border-zone is based on field trip materials, interviews and a survey carried out at the beginning of 2015 with the aim to specify the change in the prospective life in a multinational and multi-religious region, thus in the society in general, where traditions and rituals have intertwined between the religious and atheistic, the pagan, and Christian, the ancient / traditional and the modern. The results of the survey as a primary source demonstrate some transformations in traditional approach to holiday celebration; nevertheless festivities prove to be an indispensable part of human's live. Although the problem of co-existence of diverse cultures, ethnic groups and religions in our contemporary world is observed, in border-zone area, festivities function as a consolidating rudiment revealing a tendency to erase the split between ethnic and religious groups leading from narrow isolation to acceptance of the other and fusion of traditions.

Publication Impact Profile

• Captures
• Mendeley - Readers: 1

PLUMX see details

DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/SGEMSOCIAL2015/B11/S2.069

Publication details

Back to publication list