Festivals in Focus

A Historical Perspective

Festivals is Focus Dragan Klaic A Historical Perspective The origins of today´s festivals can be traced back to ancient feasts and celebrations of a ritual character, as societies and social groups sought to punctuate the flow of ordinary time with special occasions and endow them with meaning as symbolicaffirmationsofacommunity´scontinuity and welfare. Whether they expressed allegiance to supernatural powers, their ancestors or current rulers, societies created a sequence of ritualised actions and deeds that symbolically reinforced their hierarchies, sense of the self and value systems. These festivals occurred at fixed times in the course of the year, marked by the changes of the seasons, and realigned society with nature. Celebratory activities, albeit inspired by religious beliefs, sometimes implied some pragmatic considerations, as well. Festivals in Ancient Greece celebrating the god Dionysus in the 5th 4 century BC at the same time helped entrench symbolically the dominance of Athens over other city states, by soliciting their gifts to the Dionysius temple in Athens. Roman festivities, especially in the imperial period, stressed entertainment over strictly religious functions and served to appease the masses and secure their allegiance to the rulers or power contenders. In the Christian calendar, Biblical narratives and especially the New Testament rendering of Jesus’ life marked the festive moments of the year, additionally filled later with the special days of celebration of the Virgin Mary and of the saints. Medieval mystery plays, performed across Europe in a stunning variety of forms and logistic arrangements, tended to mark the Corpus Christi holiday and asserted festive performance over all other activities of urban life, expanding gradually from the interior of the church to the city streets and squares, especially in the processional model practiced in England. These large participative festivals depended on the contribution of many volunteers in the preparatory works and in the performance itself, and served to assert the value, richness and skills of a city over other neighbouring places, thus nurturing local pride. Similarly, medieval fairs were exceptional, rather dense gatherings of sellers and buyers but also 5 rare opportunities for enjoyment, pleasure and intensive socializing, enhanced by some performances that stressed the festive character of the event above its commercial function. Renaissance and later baroque court festivals catered to a more elite audience of aristocrats and courtiers, and sought to praise the ruler, often through intricate analogies with mythological characters, to express the loyalty of his subjects to him. Whether young aristocrats, students or servants appeared in these feasts as performers, they were celebrants and were specifically assigned characters within an elaborate narrative of great symbolic aspiration, which followed a complex staging plan, seeking to evoke pleasure and admiration. Festive procession, triumphal entries intothecity,celebrationofpeaceandofaristocratic weddings and births completed the repertory of such proto-festivals, multiplying the formulae and technical and logistical arrangements with special skills and machinery to create stunning effects and of course to spend considerable budgets. An early blueprint of today’s festival practice can be found in the plan of English actor David Garrick to celebrate the anniversary of Shakespearés birth by staging in September 1769 a festive procession of actors, dressed as Shakespearés characters in the bard´s 6 birthplace, Stratford upon Avon. Confirming the 18th century status of Shakespeare as a cultural hero, so many visitors descended on the small town in Midlands of England that, unprepared for so much attention, Stratford quickly ran out of food, beer and ale whilst the English weather predictably spoiled the procession. Garrick lost a lot of his own money in this festive operation and later mocked his own ambition in the selfironic one-act play The Jubilee. This incident is an early lesson to all subsequent festival managers about the inherent risk, logistical complexity and dependence on weather conditions that can wreck even the best festival concept. The French Revolution sought to eliminate the influence of the Catholic Church and abolished the Christian calendar replacing it with its own revolutionary scheme of time, with decades instead of weeks and new names for the months, starting the count from the first year of the revolution and the attack by the masses on the Bastille. The revolution also sought to mobilize the masses and secure their loyalty through symbolic representation of their purpose and mission, celebrating Reason as the Supreme Being instead of the pantheon of Christian saints. Such revolutionary festivities could also be seen within the proto-festival 7 evolution...