In the context of the protection of intangible cultural heritage, the main problem with the inheritance of the current Spring Festival customs is that it has not completed the transformation from an agricultural civilization to a modern civilization. Its cultural connotation, way of celebrating the festival, and modern society There are still some things that don't quite fit.
Many urban teenagers feel that the Spring Festival is "too burdensome", with cumbersome etiquette and too many rules; some middle-aged people feel that the cost of giving gifts, lucky money, etc. is too high and they are overwhelmed during the festival.
I believe that this negative opinion arises not because the customs themselves are not suitable for modern society, but because of the relevant strategies adopted by China in the process of transforming from traditional society to modern society in modern times. Traditional festivals have not made necessary innovations to adapt to social changes. In modern society, for the Spring Festival to prosper and grow, necessary adjustments must be made and it must be sufficiently modern.
At this stage, in addition to the automatic updating of festival customs among the people in response to changes in lifestyles, relevant government departments, academia and other social forces should adopt strategic strategies when inheriting and protecting New Year customs. Consider strengthening the modern elements of Spring Festival customs in the following three aspects:
First, refine and promote the modern cultural connotation of traditional New Year customs. The modernity of festival cultural connotation is not inconsistent with the reasonable survival of some traditional customs. On the one hand, some characteristic ancient customs have the meaning of performance and commemoration in modern society; on the other hand, these old customs will also be reincarnated with new meanings.
The original meaning of the Chinese New Year was mainly to worship gods and perform witchcraft at the turn of the old and new years. This custom and connotation will inevitably gradually decline in modern times, and its small number of related customs have become a way to create a grand and joyful atmosphere. The means of creating a festive and peaceful festival atmosphere has become a way for people to express their ideals of a stable and prosperous life. For example, setting off firecrackers was originally a ritual to channel gods or ward off evil spirits, but now it has become a way of celebrating. Other festival customs such as posting couplets, staying up late on New Year's Eve, paying New Year's greetings, and giving New Year's greetings can also be explained similarly.
It can be said that the Spring Festival has completed the evolution to adapt to modern society to a certain extent, and has produced new folk customs that modern people like. For example, watching the Spring Festival Gala on New Year’s Eve, residents’ fireworks are more ornamental. Firecrackers that pay attention to sound are replaced by fireworks. The evolution of New Year greetings is more representative. The traditional way of paying New Year greetings is to visit families and adopt a kneeling ceremony. Nowadays, only a few rural areas still retain the ritual of kneeling and praying for New Year greetings. In most areas, the New Year greetings in the form of visits in person have been replaced by New Year greetings by phone and text messages.
The large-scale Spring Festival temple fairs held in some cities are successful examples of combining traditional customs with modern life. In recent years, temple fairs have been held in Beijing every Spring Festival in public places such as the Temple of Earth, Longtan Lake, Baiyunguan, and Liulichang, which are very popular with the masses. Temple fairs are crowded with people almost every day. In the old days, temple fairs were large-scale gatherings developed on the basis of offering sacrifices to gods and praying for blessings. Nowadays, temple fairs focus on entertainment, entertainment, and trade, with very few sacrificial activities. The sacrificial rituals of temple fairs such as the Temple of Ditan and the Temple of Heaven are only for performances. Liulichang and Century Monument There are no sacrificial activities at the temple fair. Of course, due to social environmental factors in the past many years, the Spring Festival has not completed the modern transformation very well, and its modernity still needs to be strengthened.
Second, develop and promote Spring Festival souvenirs to create a romantic and lively festival atmosphere. Festival souvenirs, or festival symbols, refer to things that can represent the characteristics of the festival, such as Spring Festival dumplings, firecrackers, lanterns, couplets, Laba porridge, Kitchen God, zodiac animals, etc.
Festival memorials play a major role in constructing the modernity of traditional festivals in three aspects:
Maintaining people’s festival emotions and enriching people’s festival activities. Traditional festivals have been passed down for thousands of years and have accumulated relatively stable national emotions in the hearts of ethnic group members. This is reflected in the fact that during the festival, if specific traditional customs are not followed, individual members will feel emotional loss, such as being unable to reunite with their families on New Year's Eve. , you will feel that your life during the New Year is not complete. However, this kind of holiday emotion is not passed down from generation to generation unconditionally. It needs to be passed on with the help of specific rituals and activities during the festival.
In traditional societies, specific rituals or activities performed by people during festivals are often driven by relevant beliefs or maintained by certain cultural needs. In modern society, those cultural needs that are compatible with agricultural civilization no longer exist, so many festival rituals and customary activities are difficult to pass on, leaving festivals with fewer customs and weaker festivals.
In this case, the use of holiday memorials becomes very important for the maintenance of holiday traditions. In traditional society, these festival souvenirs were just tools for festivals and customs, but in modern society they often become the axis and driving force of festivals and customs. This is because these festival monuments embody the spirit of national culture and have become the sustenance of people's festival emotions and an important carrier of festival characteristics. These festival monuments also have ways of use that have been passed down from generation to generation, and the behavioral patterns surrounding these monuments have become festivals. The main content of the activity.
Create a strong festive atmosphere. The festival is an unusual time for people. People have festive moods and activities during the festival. In traditional societies or in rural areas that retain many traditional customs, people's sense of solemnity or sacredness during festivals is generally brought about by sacrificial rituals.
For example, during the Spring Festival in rural areas of Jingxian County, Hebei Province, before dinner on New Year's Eve, men from each family go to the cemetery to invite their ancestors home to eat dumplings and celebrate the New Year. After completing the ritual of inviting gods, it means that they have invited their ancestors home. At this time, people all have the awareness that God is at home, and the atmosphere at home becomes extremely solemn, and they are very cautious in what they say and do. For example, when cooking dumplings, adults will tell the children not to say "broken", "not enough" and other unlucky words. Lucky words such as "earned" and "abundant".
In modern society, in cities and many rural areas, folk beliefs have faded, and there are no sacrificial rituals during major festivals. If other festive methods are not used to make up for the lack of rituals, festivals often become deserted. In this case, holiday souvenirs come in handy. Decorating the environment with holiday souvenirs and carrying out customary activities around holiday souvenirs are important ways to create a festive atmosphere, especially the main way to create an externally visible festive atmosphere. Therefore, in modern society, our "extraordinary" feeling about holiday time, in addition to the importance of those specific days retained in our memories, mainly comes from the rendering of the environment by these holiday memorials and the use of holiday memorials. customary activities.
The smooth inheritance of traditional festivals in modern society depends on the promotion of the consumer market for festival souvenirs. In the traditional period, festival activities were mainly carried out within the scope of the family, there were few public activities, and festival supplies were mainly made at home. In modern society, family activities have decreased, and holiday supplies are mainly purchased from the market. At the same time, the social and public nature of festivals has increased. Public activities and cultural consumption during festivals rely to a large extent on the operation and promotion of merchants, and the related consumption of holiday souvenirs is the main method and goal of merchants' operations. The role of businesses in promoting the inheritance of modern festivals cannot be underestimated.
In recent years, the promotion of foreign festivals in Chinese cities has played an important role. Even the hype of merchants can change the theme of the festival and create a brand new festival. For example, Christmas in the West originally did not include Santa Claus, but later due to the influence of businesses, Christmas has almost become a festival centered around Santa Claus. At present, we do not use commemorative items completely when celebrating traditional festivals, but the quantity, quality and scale of use of commemorative items are still insufficient. The more solemn Spring Festival uses more souvenirs, which to a large extent plays a role in creating a lively and festive festival atmosphere. The disadvantage is that it is relatively old-fashioned and lacks modern flavor.
Third, strengthen and expand the entertainment and fairness of traditional customs. Most of our traditional festivals had rich and interesting custom activities in the Tang, Song and previous periods. However, after the Ming and Qing Dynasties, influenced by Confucian culture and Neo-Confucianism, too much emphasis was placed on etiquette and education. In modern times, it has become more monotonous. There are too few entertaining festivals held outdoors.
Among my country’s traditional festivals, the Lantern Festival is the most entertaining and has the most public activities. The Lantern Festival is now regarded as part of the Spring Festival and is the end and climax of the Spring Festival. In ancient times, the core of the cultural connotation of the Lantern Festival was to worship Taiyi God (the North Star God) and pray for a good harvest and heirs.
In contemporary society, the customs of worshiping stars, praying for good years, and praying for children during the Lantern Festival have all declined. The spirit of the festival can be attributed to cherishing and loving life, and expressing the people's wishes for prosperity, reunion, and happiness. The prosperous Lantern Festival in the old days can be regarded as China's carnival. Various grand celebrations and entertainment activities are filled with the carnival spirit of the people, so there is a saying of "Lantern Festival". The Lantern Festival celebrations include almost all large-scale traditional entertainment and celebration methods: lighting up lanterns, beating gongs and drums, dancing dragons and lions, dancing yangko, singing operas, guessing riddles, etc. The Lantern Festival's lantern festivals, opera singing, Yangko dancing, dragon and lion dancing and other celebration activities are group public activities held in the community. Through good and orderly public celebration activities, people's public awareness, community identity, and collective sense of honor can be strengthened, and help create a harmonious atmosphere in the community.
Although the evolution and transformation of traditional festivals mainly rely on their own mechanisms and vitality, as well as the natural inheritance and independent choices of the people, Chinese and foreign historical experience shows that the problem is not so simple, and external intervention can also affect the festival. The rise and fall of the country plays a big role in its survival. The current weakening state of traditional festivals is largely the result of external interference in the past. Now we need to use traditional festivals to promote excellent national culture. Government public opinion advocates this and gives more holidays to traditional festivals. This is a very powerful policy intervention. Of course, external intervention should also require more systematic and complete measures. On the whole, we should promote and enhance the status of traditional culture in modern mainstream culture, enhance people's cultural consciousness, and gradually eliminate the admiration for foreign countries. Only in this way can we fundamentally create a humanistic environment that is conducive to the prosperity of traditional festivals and enable its modernity. The foundation and driving force for growth and growth.
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the most lively thing is the lantern market. This picture of the Lantern Festival Lantern Market in the Qing Dynasty shows the street market at that time
The internationalization of the Spring Festival and the inheritance of customs
In recent years, the internationalization trend of the Spring Festival has become a noticeable cultural Phenomenon.
In fact, the internationalization of the customs of the Old Calendar Years has already begun in ancient times, especially in the Tang Dynasty when the country was strong. In the Tang Dynasty, my country's lunar calendar and traditional festival customs spread to the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Vietnam and other East Asian regions, and were adopted by these countries.
To this day, New Year customs originating from my country's old calendar and its festivals are still celebrated grandly in North Korea, South Korea, and Vietnam, and they enjoy longer holidays. When Japan switched to the Western calendar in 1872, it moved its traditional customs to New Year's Day in the Western calendar. Chinese communities that have migrated to other countries throughout the ages have also maintained traditional New Year customs, which is another aspect of the internationalization of the Spring Festival.
Wanderers and overseas Chinese in foreign countries, while integrating into the local society, attach great importance to celebrating the festivals of the motherland with traditional customs. In this way, they can comfort themselves with the humanistic feelings rooted in the motherland, and also pay attention to the surrounding foreign cultures. Ethnic groups express their cultural identity and display the cultural characteristics of the group to which they belong.
In recent years, with the significant improvement of China's international status, overseas Chinese have become more and more popular in celebrating the Chinese New Year in different cultural societies, and more and more non-Chinese people have been attracted to watch and participate. Chinese New Year activities have come, and the Chinese Spring Festival is increasingly respected and even accepted by the local mainstream society.
Overseas Chinese people pay special attention to the public nature of performances during the New Year, and pay attention to using celebration forms with ethnic characteristics in public places to grandly and lively display the existence of the Chinese cultural group to the local people. Activities such as dragon dancing, lion dancing, drumming, and firecrackers that have distinctive symbols of Chinese culture and are eye-catching are particularly popular among Chinese people. They also appropriately absorbed some of the festival methods commonly used by local society, such as parades, which are very popular. In 2004, New York State in the United States announced the "Chinese Lunar New Year" as a legal holiday in the state. Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Mauritius and other countries have also established public holidays for local Chinese to celebrate the Spring Festival. Since 2007, every time the Chinese Lunar New Year approaches, the Canadian government has issued a set of zodiac commemorative stamps. This year, it also released zodiac stamps for the Year of the Ox. On the eve of this year's Spring Festival, the Brazilian government also issued a stamp with a "Golden Ox" pattern. This is the third time that the Brazilian post office has issued Chinese zodiac stamps after the Year of Snake and Year of Horse stamps. All these examples show that the Spring Festival celebration has been As a bright symbol of the ethnic culture to which overseas Chinese belong, the local mainstream society also uses it as a symbol of respect and acceptance of the Chinese New Year to express recognition of the contributions of the Chinese and respect for the Chinese culture.
Tradition. Festivals are a grand and symbolic national culture that can significantly reflect the national cultural characteristics and strongly influence other ethnic groups’ attention and understanding of the Chinese nation’s characteristic culture. It is also a convenient window for different cultural groups to understand our national characteristic culture. Some people say that the internationalization of the Spring Festival shows a significant increase in China's soft power and influence in the world, which makes sense.
Compared with other parts of culture, folk culture is inherited to a greater extent. Taking the New Year customs as an example, how many of the impressions and habits we have about the New Year are learned from books, or are they not influenced by our elders’ New Year celebrations since we were young? The key to this inheritance method is that it cannot be dated. Many people are now worried that young people do not like to celebrate our traditional festivals and are keen on celebrating Western festivals. Is this because traditional festivals are really not suitable for modern society? >
Russell has a famous saying: Diversity is the source of happiness. Here I would like to apply it this way: Cultural diversity is the source of the progress of human civilization. It would be a bad thing if there was only one culture. Only by maintaining their own cultural characteristics can all ethnic groups maintain the pattern of cultural diversity in the world. Our traditional festivals are part of the characteristic culture of the Chinese nation and cannot be discarded according to the above principles; from the examples and academic theories of cultural development around the world. Look, after adjustment and updating, it can fully adapt to and benefit modern society. I think the relationship between Western festivals and traditional festivals is like the relationship between Western fast food and Chinese food. It is okay for us to absorb a few distinctive Western festivals. But we can only use it to enrich our festival system, instead of throwing away our traditional festivals at the same time. If you don’t like McDonald’s, you can eat Peking duck instead. If you don’t like Western festivals, you may not be able to return to it. Traditional festivals, because the intangible cultural heritage of traditional festivals is different from material things, it is difficult to pick up the festival customs of a group if they are lost.