The Ritual Year of Athena: The Agricultural Cycle of the Olive,Girls' Rites of Passage,and Official Ideology

Through the ritual year of ancient Athens, many festivals were dedicated to Athena. The Panathenaia was the most important festival. It has been regarded as a political festival, but the importance of agriculture is also illustrated through the offerings and rituals carried out during this main festival dedicated to the Goddess of the olive crop. All Athena's festivals were related to the olive, the third main crop of the Athenians, and protected by her, as her festivals were celebrated in the crucial period for the olive crop, from the flowering of the olive tree, growing period of the fruit, until the gathering in winter. The summer festivals, particularly, may be related to the importance of securing the dew for the growing fruit. Many rituals during the festivals reflect the daily activities of women, several rituals are also important to the rite of passage undergone by girls at puberty to prepare them for marriage.     

“Make Hell While the Sun Shines”: Proverbial Rhetoric in Winston Churchill's The Second World War

M.M. Bakhtin's social construction of Renaissance carnivals, and his views on carnival in general, encounter trouble when tested against a presentday enactment, the Cajun country Courir de Mardi Gras, a processional begging ritual celebrated in southern Louisiana. The living festival reveals structures missing from Bakhtin's élite sources and consequently from his writings: structures that articulate the folk community's autonomous values and cooperative survival strategies. As long as literary studies based on Bakhtin find in carnival only that which opposes élite culture, they will fail to recognise the dimensions of community selfcelebration and self-definition essential to many folk festivals.     

异托邦：音乐节事活动的空间实践——以迷笛音乐节为例

文章使用异托邦理论为概念框架,以迷笛音乐节为案例,通过参与式观察与深度访谈法,试图揭示音乐节空间实践中构建的另类特征。研究发现,迷笛音乐节所承载的功能逐渐由叛逆的“出口”转变为“好玩”的生活方式;音乐节事空间实践中呈现出多元的功能并置,矛盾与流动的融合;音乐节事空间的文化实践也呈现出日常结构的超越与反抗,以及作为理想的补偿空间。周期性节事时空实践中文化的稳定性则使其成为对称而不可分割的系统性时空。该研究为节事空间提供了新的认知途径,也从节事的角度丰富了异托邦理论的微观案例。     

‘Singing oneself into a nation’? Estonian song festivals as rituals of political mobilisation

This article argues that Estonian song festivals were a powerful ritual of political mobilisation. Throughout their history, however, they had to be accommodated to narratives of ruling regimes. Taking Patrick Hutton's concept of such events as a ‘moment of memory’ with which images of the past are being reconstructed in a selective way, song festivals are on each occasion made to suit present needs. During the history of Estonian nationhood, these needs have been guided first and foremost by forms of political authority: during years of independence, the festivals were to serve different purposes than under imperial or Soviet Russian rule. Thus, the concept of ‘singing oneself into a nation’, popular in Estonian history textbooks, is only partly true. Although the performance of the festival changes only slightly through the years, its political significance changes enormously.     

Medieval English Martinmesse : The Archaeology of a Forgotten Festival

Beginning with Elizabethan literary references to a carnivalesque celebration of Martinmas, the present article surveys the St Martin cult in England in order to isolate features of the medieval celebration of the Christian feast and determine the feast's relationship to seasonal activities of early November. Martinmas is seen as both the last harvest festival and a curtain raiser for the extended winter revelling season, in effect a "Carnival" in late autumn.     

Exploring international film festivals from a co-evolutionary perspective: the cases of Berlin and Busan compared

In the past two decades, the number of international film festivals strongly increased. As a research topic, however, these festivals have received little attention within economic geography and regional studies. The aim of this comparative paper is to explore the institutional history and impact on local economic development of two international film festivals, namely Berlin and Busan, from a co-evolutionary perspective. Based on qualitative empirical fieldwork done in Busan and Berlin we draw two conclusions. First, different institutional structures have led to different ways of success. However, Busan’s less stable and tenser institutional configuration may negatively affect the festival in the near future. Secondly, in both cities the festival affects the local economy, albeit in different ways.     

新休假制度对我国居民出游行为的影响及旅游业应对策略

本文认为,新的休假制度将对居民出游行为产生影响：假日短线游增加,个性化、休闲化旅游成趋势,远程游将集中在假期、十一、春节、带薪年休假,而节日“小长假”将被亲情友情所“包裹”。旅游业必须转变观念,调整产品结构,提高产品质量,完善旅游服务,改进营销方式,从而应对新的休假制度。     

Commentary Individuation in Country Music: A Modern Pilgrimage

Cattle festivals and cattle rites are much neglected elements of the Indian cattle complex. This study examines Gopashtami and Govardhan Puja, two cattle festivals identified with the cult of Krishna. Although Krishna assumes several aspects in Hinduism, the pastoral Krishna is one of the most popular forms of the deity. Gopashtami and Govardhan Puja are important festivals in Braj, the traditional homeland of the cowherd god. Their origins can be traced to medieval Hindu texts, but Govardhan Puja contains ritual elements that suggest ancient rites have been absorbed into a later Hindu festival. Gopashtami and Govardhan Puja, like any religious festival, can be interpreted at several different levels. They have symbolic meaning, raising questions of conflicting religious traditions or economic systems in the past. They mirror regional patterns of culture and historical tradition in India. They assume a range of social functions, and in addition, form part of the process by which people are exposed to their cultural heritage. Above all, however, they are festivals dedicated to cattle and to the cowherd god Krishna. The myths and rituals of Gopashtami and Govardhan Puja reflect the strong historical ties between Krishna and the cow, as well as reinforce traditional Hindu concepts concerning the sanctity of the cow.     

节庆事件对区域旅游流空间网络的影响效应和机制研究

以洛阳牡丹花节为例,通过多源数据的融合,运用社会网络、因子分析方法,探究节庆事件对区域旅游流空间网络的影响效应及机制。结果表明：节庆事件对区域旅游流空间网络影响表现为协同、弱化及蜂聚三种效应,不同效应影响机制不同。其中,节点的等级和知名度优势非常明显的态势下,产生显著的协同效应;节庆游憩区内的低等级节点出现轻微的节庆弱化效应,区域外节点主要受到空间交通距离限制产生了显著的节庆弱化效应;旅游等级很强且旅游承载量优势非常明显的非节庆旅游节点,以及等级、知名度或地理区位较强的节庆旅游节点呈现出强蜂聚效应,以上条件均不强的节庆旅游节点仅发生弱集聚效应。     

Designated Public Festivals of Interest to Tourists

Event tourism is part of the appeal of a destination and an important contributor to the well-being of communities. This paper examines the festivals classified of interest to tourists by the Spanish Tourist Board. The declaration of Festivals of Interest to Tourists (FITs) is granted to those festivals which demonstrate cultural values and popular traditions, with special consideration to their ethnological characteristics and to their particular importance as a tourist attraction. These festivals provide new opportunities to attract visitors to the places where they are held. Local and regional policies can take advantage of the FITs in order to increase the appeal of a tourist destination. This paper details an exploratory analysis of FITs in Spanish provinces. This study aims to group the provinces according to the characteristics of their FITs. To this end, a cluster analysis is performed and the validity is established using the unbiased estimator out-of-bag.     

Fad,fetish or fixture: contingent valuation of performing and visual arts festivals in Singapore

This paper analyses how much culture is valued in a newly-developed economy with a distinct dichotomy of an arts-appreciating population segment and a less-culturally aware mass. An analytical framework weaving together the intrinsic, business and societal benefits of arts and culture is applied to explore whether arts festivals – a popular tourism event in many countries – are a temporary fad, an expensive governmental fetish or a naturally-evolving fixture. This has implications for government funding and cultural policy. Empirical evidence supports the notion that the long-running performing arts festival is a not a fad but a fixture with some fetish elements while the visual arts festival appears to be a fad but has the potential to be a fixture. Of particular concern, however, is the evidence from both festivals that the perceptions of community benefit, business benefits as well as bequest value from the arts are not significant determinants of willingness to pay for these events.     

Celebrating Literature to Shape Citizenship: France's 2007 ‘Lire en fête’

Each year since 1989, France has celebrated Lire en fête, a literary festival initiated by then Minister of Culture Jack Lang. Like other national festivals created during the 1980s, such as La Fête de la musique and La Fête du cinéma, Lire en fête provides entertainment, but also directly relates to government democratisation efforts. This article analyses the 2007 version of Lire en fête, focusing on primary documents such as the Dossier de presse and the official website, and suggests that the French government uses this festival to increase public engagement in French society and to encourage responsible citizenship, in part by fostering the development of a literate public sphere.

Chaque année depuis 1989 la France célèbre Lire en fête, une fête littéraire lancée par Jack Lang qui à l'époque était Ministre de la Culture. Comme tant d'autres fêtes nationales créées pendant les années 80, telles que la Fête de la musique et la Fête du cinéma, Lire en fête est un divertissement, mais est aussi liée directement aux efforts du gouvernement de démocratiser la culture. Cet article analyse l'édition 2007 du festival, en se concentrant sur des sources comme le Dossier de presse et le site Internet officiel, et suggère que le gouvernement français utilise cette fête pour augmenter l'engagement public de la société française ainsi que pour encourager les citoyens à être des citoyens responsables, en partie en favorisant le développement d'une sphère publique instruite et cultivée.     

Book reviews

This paper focuses on cultural reproduction in arts festival settings. It begins by conceptualizing festival settings as places whose characters derive from a combination of both internally derived traits and a diverse series of interactions with other places. Drawing on case study research conducted in an arts festival setting in Galway in the Republic of Ireland, the discussion identifies how elements indigenous to the place connect and engage with external forces. The study found the process of interacting with other places to be complex, involving much negotiation and adaptation as locales became contexts for re-working an array of often conflicting ideals and influences. The paper concludes that while inevitable difficulties are faced as festivals negotiate the potentially standardizing forces of homogenization, it is only through continuous interaction with other places that local contexts realize their full potential.     

消费地理学视角下非物质文化遗产的消费研究——姊妹节中的传统手工艺苗绣

消费研究的爆炸式增长始于20世纪80年代的消费热潮。消费地理的研究领域在过去的三十年里已经大大扩展,超越了经济和文化之间的传统分歧,并逐渐占据了主导的地位。本研究关注传统节庆中非物质文化遗产苗绣的消费实践,从不同的空间主体（在地的身体、流动的身体、固定的空间、临时的空间）对苗绣的消费过程进行分析,采用参与式观察法和深度访谈法解译施洞地区苗族和游客在传统节庆姊妹节中对苗绣的消费实践。研究发现,消费的话语和实践在特定的空间中定位身体,反过来地方又影响着具身化的消费实践。     

The transformational festival as a subversive toolbox for a transformed tourism: lessons from Burning Man for a COVID-19 world

Abstract

Examining transformational festivals can offer conceptual resources for a transformation of tourism into a more responsible and sustainable practice. By thinking together two usually distinct scholarly treatments of “transformation”—those of transformational tourism and those of transformational festivals—the COVID-19 pandemic can itself also be treated as a spatiotemporal threshold for the transformation of the travel industry. This approach can also help deconstruct the mechanisms that sustain deleterious aspects of tourism’s guest-host divide. As borders reopen and mobility and recreation recommences, the capacity of transformational festivals—both within and beyond their highly porous time-spaces– to transform their participants offer lessons for the blurring, if not the outright obliteration of the demarcation between guests and hosts. The creative and pro-social responses of members of one such transformational festival culture—Burning Man– to this and past crises are presented as examples for how values such as participation and civic responsibility may help people overcome shared conditions of hardship, and support more sustainable tourism practices in the post-COVID-19 world. Such subversive inter-subjective inversions may bring the recognition, in-itself, and production, for-itself, of a shared humanity of co-creators and participants in not just ephemeral, but accretive transformational social and environmental projects.     

Ecological Basis of the Bihu Festival of Assam

Bihu is one of the most important festivals in the northeast Indian state of Assam. Published accounts of the festival mainly deal with its rituals, texts and performance, and its ecological setting is often overlooked. This essay seeks to explore the ecological basis of Bihu and tries to understand how it has assumed its form through an interaction of culture and ecology.     

Mussels,Tourism and Community Development: A Case Study of Place Branding Through Food Festivals in Rural North Jutland,Denmark

Abstract

Rural areas are facing prospects of marginalization and peripherality in an age of globalization where the attention of governments and media focuses increasingly on the (lack of) competitiveness of urban and metropolitan regions in Europe. Many rural areas have, therefore, searched for ways to improve their position vis-à-vis other localities by mobilizing local resources and employing policy tools that are believed to foster indigenous social and economic development, including place branding. Unsurprisingly, using food as a means to profile rural localities has become widespread, with branding efforts revolving around local food festivals that commodify local cultural resources. The article attempts to illuminate the challenges faced by branding processes in rural areas through a case study of Løgstør, a small rural town in North Jutland, Denmark, which builds its branding efforts around an annual mussel festival. The analysis focuses on the relationship between stakeholders and branding strategies, and in particular aims to uncover the role of the food festival in aggravating or alleviating inherent tensions between different stakeholders and target groups. It is argued that in the case of Løgstør making a food festival pivotal, a signature event for the place branding efforts has been created, which appeals to both external and internal audiences, and that this may hold wider lessons for place-branding initiatives in other small towns across Europe.     

The participation of younger people within intentional communities: evidence from two case studies

A growing body of literature has begun to address the value and heterogeneity of younger people's experiences. However, younger people often remain one of society's most disempowered groups. Whilst children's right to participate is now enshrined in law following the 1991 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, levels of participation commonly experienced by younger people remain low. This article considers the role participation may potentially play in overcoming adultist bias. It draws on participatory research within two small‐scale intentional communities to evaluate what can be learnt from younger people's participation in such groupings. Whilst both case study communities are located in South Wales, the insights provided by this research can be used to inform practice and research on participation in many other locations.     

Creativity and its contexts: the emergence,institutionalisation and professionalisation of science and culture in Luxembourg

While an abundant literature on the social history of culture and science in Europe has developed over the past few decades, there is to date hardly any academic work exploring the social history of science and culture in Luxembourg. The aim of this article is to put Luxembourg ‘on the map’ by focusing on its scientific research and museums in order to examine the emergence, institutionalisation and professionalisation of Luxembourg's science and culture. It will be argued that the most radical changes occurred in the 1980s and 1990s: a multiplication of infrastructures, an increase in budgets, a professionalisation of practices, the emergence of a market for artworks, and an appearance of dedicated policies. During this period, both the material architecture and the socioeconomic architecture of science and culture have been significantly (re)configured. Within the political debates accompanying these changes, the discourses stressing the positionality and relationality of science and culture are noteworthy: while both were increasingly positioned within a European context, research was predominantly portrayed as a resource to boost Luxembourg's economy whereas culture more as a complement to Luxembourg's image of a financial player and a means to ‘regenerate’ its symbolic capital.