http://community.omtimes.com/profiles/blogs/significance-of-festivals-in-preserving-love-peace-and-harmony
Artwork by Anca Mihaela Bruma
In time of resilience and pragmatic approaches,
festivals bring the feeling of togetherness, belongingness, connectedness. Our
“victories” are tied less to the “tangibles” but more to the intangibles IMF
(in the moment feeling). These festivals infuse sacredness, what is missing in
our modern pragmatic life. We may wear different clothes, have different gods
in different part of the world but Unity is what really the humankind is
craving for, because together we are able to create the Future!
Lately some festivals became a global economic
phenomena an important part of industry, it offers possibilities to expand
horizons through an intense process of rituality and performances. It creates a
great publicity and feeds the image and identity of the community. Nowadays
there is a higher demand for cultural production and the mediating of culture.
Most of the festivities are joyful communal gatherings, like vital hubs,
celebrating diversity, vibrancy, traditions versus modern innovations, engaging
communities in meaningful and even memorable experiences in order to strengthen
the ties, underlying our sense of Self as well the connection with the
community itself. If those festivals remain true to their own goal, to be also
a keeper of its own identity, it enables future development for the future.
Most of the festivals help us to discover WHO we are, remember from where we
have come from and anticipate just where we want to go.
Evolution and evolving in life is everything,
therefore, even some Ancient festival expressions have been challenged.
However, there is a remarkable phenomena evolving in these modern days, where
we still keep strongly the need and want for contributing creatively,
positively to the community, we become co-creators inside these artistic
expressions, in these festival experiences. The phenomena I am talking about is
called transformational festivals, with high convergence points for cultural
creators in which the main aim is to achieve transformation through
inspiration. New healing and sanctuary type of festivals have been created
lately, where the reconnection with the mankind as well with the Universe
became the core of these transformational festivals. Ancient myths, time, space
are explored, where primordial experiences are also revived, and all these
became seen as future culture. We become the co-creators, the World makers,
creating a “gate” to escape from all types of hierarchies and hidden agenda
embedded in this very pragmatic world. In those moments we are freed to
co-create and share the realization of a liberated world from fears, laws,
customs, a World we mostly wish to live. The festivals are like “spaces”
created to allow our own selves to get in touch with our own humanness, no more
walls imposed by our routine life, which creates the idea of separateness,
becoming defensive against each other. Instead, these new created models
through these transformational and highly creative festivities, we share idea
of living in a compatible diversity.
The emergence of these transformational festivals
“impose” a new spiritual culture, one long forgotten, the one in which none is
interested anymore in charismatic leaders but just in honoring the sacredness
of our human being, the celebration of our togetherness, experiencing the
ecstatic expressions of mankind, it is a rejoining of secular values, where
unconditional love is magnified and the core belief system.
Transformational festivals also embrace feel-good
values like ecological sustainability, organic food, community building and
wisdom sharing and a language of neo-spirituality and personal growth is common
there.
In nowadays we became more reliant on iPhones, more
connected via social media, we, in fact became more disconnected from each
other! A real connection is what we crave! We need IRL (In Real Life)
experiences rather than diving deeply in URL’s deep “ocean”. In many parts of
the words cells or internet are almost inexistent, therefore the sense of
community is much stronger. Our breaks from daily routine should be
transformational. Deep down we are inter-related and connected, and most of the
people taste happiness in the collective experiential context. We are all
stimulated by this collective effervescence, a communal joy. We are living
during very competitive times, and cultural curiosity will create a
predisposition, a window into the “other” and of course into our own selves,
because festivals are natural barrier disintegrators. Festivals bring you
face-to-face with the highest expression of the human spirit!
It is proven that local festivals have beneficial
effects on the community, as it enhances the feeling of identity, besides the
animated cultural life, especially if locals are involved in organizing the
event, not just simply being the consumer of it. Both sides are very important
for me!
Nowadays, the festivals scenes are more inclusive than
before, more open to ideas and thematic stimulus. They bring something vital,
which is breaking down the barriers between low and high, classical and modern,
old and new. All these social festivities have something in common, despite
their difference, they provide a communal experience, one which can have only
in the crowd. These festivals equate, as the collective experience eradicate
the social differences that we hold it on daily basis. It creates a platform
for various cultures, people, or art to be combined, promoting liberality and
strengthening tolerance.
Modern day festivals link culture with entertainment,
trade and economic growth, and this has a social impact as it strengthens the
local community and identity, thus enhancing national solidarity. Local
festival may fight against the effect of globalization, therefore they present
their own regional, local values, the uniqueness of their own locality and
identity.
To conclude, festivals and celebrations in their
present forms, can play a role for world’s Peace and Unity.
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