Festivals are collective phenomena and serve purposes rooted in group life. Systems of reciprocity and of shared responsibility ensure the continuity of and participation in the festival through the distribution of prestige and production. Most festivals provide the opportunity for individual religious devotion or individual performance, and this opportunity is a primary motive for the occasion. Other unstated but important purposes are the expression of group identity through ancestor worship or memorialization, the performance of highly valued skills and talents, or the articulation of the group heritage. Rarely do such events use the term festival, employing [1](1. merely 2. thereby 3. instead) a name related to the stated purposes or core symbols of the event: Mardi Gras (Catholic), Sukkot (Jewish), Holi (Hindu), Namahage (Japanese), Cowboy Reunion (American), Feast of Fools (French). Those events that do have festival in their titles are generally contemporary modern constructions, [2](1. employing 2. strengthening 3. producing) festival characteristics but serving the commercial, ideological, or political purposes of self-interested authorities or entrepreneurs.
[3](1. Change 2. Consideration 3. Coinage) of terminology also raises the question of festival’s relationship to ritual. The separation of the two types of symbolic enactment evolved as a consequence of modern religious systems’ attempts to obliterate native religions. Quite commonly, however, indigenous practices [4](1. survived 2. predominated 3. died down) under a new name, disguising their origins. These became known as festival or fiesta, in contrast to ritual, which became the serious occasions focusing on male authority legitimated by modern official religion. In an effort to denigrate indigenous religious practices, modern religion thus assigned festival to a position [5](1.through 2. crucial to 3.peripheral to) the core of ritual life. The most recent modern religions, such as Protestantism, completely dissociate festival from religion, and it then becomes a secular event. As a result, ritual is associated with official religion, whereas festival designates occasions considered to be pagan, recreational, or for children. Like play and creativity, festival explores and [6](1. copes 2. experiments 3. defines itself) with meaning. Both forms utilize multiple codes and channels. Examples of contemporary festivals and holidays with ancient roots include celebrations of saints’ days, the Virgin Mary, Christmas, the new year, Easter, May Day, and Halloween, all of which represent a fusion of early Indo-European and/or Native American religious rituals with modern religion and culture.
Ritual and festival occur in modern cultures as separate events, but older religions integrate the calendrical rites we are [7](1. following 2. combining 3. labeling) festival into the larger ritual cycle. For this reason, much of the literature on religion, ritual, festival, fiesta, or carnival does not distinguish between the two related forms.
Two symbolic processes contribute heavily to the festival mystique: the manipulation of temporal reality and transformation. The temporal reality of festival incorporates time in at least two dimensions. In the first, the principles of periodicity and rhythm define the experience. Not surprisingly, this cyclic pattern is associated with the cycles of the moon in cultures [8](1. in which 2. of which 3. by which) the lunar calendar is or has been used in recent history. With the passage of time festival occurs again and again, marking the cycles of the moon, the annual repetition of the seasons, and the movements of the planets governing the solar calendar. Festival occurs calendrically, either on a certain date each month or on a specific date or periodic time each year. The cycles of time are the justification for festival, independent of any human agent. Unlike rites of passage, which move individuals through time, festival yokes the social group to this cyclic force, [9](1. breaking 2. establishing 3. changing) contact with the cosmos and the eternal process of time.
In the second of these dimensions of temporality, expressions of tradition and change confront each other. Meaning in festival derives from [10](1. experience 2. natural power 3. establishment) : thus, festival emphasizes the past. Yet festival happens in the present and for the present, directed toward the future. Thus, the new and different are legitimate dimensions of festival, contributing to its vitality.
In the festival environment, principles of reversal, repetition, juxtaposition, condensation, and excess flourish, leading to communication and behavior that [11](1. abides by 2. incorporates 3. contrasts with) everyday life. These principles can be applied to every code in use for communication. Repetition, for example, operates [12](1. although 2. so that 3. unless) the sound of drums, fireworks, or singing voices may be continuous throughout an event, or the major visual symbol such as an image of a bear or the symbol of corn or the cowboy/gaucho may be shown in many circumstances.
Festival use of symbolic form has captured the interest of a number of scholars in different disciplines, from Jane Ellen Harrison to Victor Turner and Mikhail Bakhtin, all of whom noted the transformative potential in rites and festivals. Transformation in festivals takes the form of symbolic manipulation using the principles listed above. Among the most common is inversion, the reversal of the established social order, [13](1. including 2. maintaining 3. furthering) social hierarchy and gender roles. In hierarchical societies, symbolic inversion creates an upside-down world with the “inferior” at the top and the “superior” at the bottom, or it declares [14](1. the social structure 2. inversion 3. egalitarianism) to be in order for the duration of the festival. Special characters such as clowns may assume the role of agent in bringing about the symbolic action. In societies in which egalitarianism is the stated form, symbolic inversion may create a [15](1. demolition 2. royalty 3. reorientation) of queens and princesses, demonstrating the reversal from egalitarianism to aristocracy and from a male-dominated to a female-dominated social structure. Competitions in festival serve the same purpose, creating competitive performers and dividing them into the victorious and the defeated, creating differentiation out of sameness.
The principle of juxtaposition permits the enactment of cultural themes that may be deeply rooted in concepts of [16](1. difference 2. maintenance 3. structure) and contrast or may derive from oppositions or conflicts in social experience. For example, until the modern era, most societies were preoccupied with survival and thus concentrated attention on fertility rites and reproductive acts, emphasizing gender differences. Today festivals continue to represent an opportunity for the enactment of gender roles and for courtship and romance.
Almost any theme selected by festival will be repeated in many codes, and most behaviors and actions can be found [17](1. in excess 2. in a clear-cut fashion 3. in some special festivals). Symbolic forms permit the communication of a larger quantity of cultural knowledge because symbols condense messages and carry multiple meanings, offering some ambiguity in meaning. Among the most dramatic symbols associated with festival are masks and costumes. They [18](1. take off 2. keep out 3. draw upon) both the familiar and the strange but distinctly transform the human inside into a message bearer — carrying information that may be supernatural, exotic, or mysterious in nature.
Scholarly interpretations of festival stress the licensed relaxation of norms and rules, a [19](1. stipulation 2. negation 3. creation) of the social order that opens doors of risk and confronts destruction and recreation. Closely associated are themes of revitalization, suggesting that the principles of excess, reversal, repetition, juxtaposition and condensation lead participants to experience transformation and regeneration. This may take many forms: personal affirmation, political action, courtship and marriage, social revitalization, and so on.
Taken as a whole, festival facilitates regeneration through rearrangement of structures, thus creating new frames and processes: consequently, it can strengthen the identity of the group and thus its power to [20](1. act 2. balance off 3. disappear) in its own interest, or it can contribute to the articulation of social issues and possibly conflict if more than one interpretation prevails on the same subject. Because of the social power of these regenerative forms, however, festival thrives in both ancient and modern societies, always enacting social life and shaping the expressive enterprise of human society.
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