The Educational Function Of Festivals

In daily life, people complains that there lives little fun in festivals in one hand, and in another hand, a lot of new festivals are created. Then, what is festival? What is the structure and function of festivals? Is there any educational function in festivals? And if it does, what is the educational function of festivals? To find the answers, the writer begun the research.The writer aimed on Naxi people in her fieldwork, for two different samples: the traditional type of spending festivals delegated by Baishuitai Naxi "2,8" festival; and the modem commercial type of festivals' experience delegated by Iijiang Naxi "2 , 8" festival. Through 5 months' fieldwork, the writer thought that there does exist educational function in festivals.The writer firstly defined what is real festival by excluded some so-called festivals like "the international children's festival", "the water festival" and so on. The real festival should be those which included two types of contents: to worship the God and to entertain people.Baishuitai is a natural scene, which is also a sacred place of Naxi people, and where the traditional Naxi culture is reserved well for its inconvenience of communication.Festivals' structure should be classified into three levels: the first level includes when, where, and how festivals are celebrated, and the second level includes all the causes of festivals, like the natural environment, economy, political policies, religion, moral and ethic rules, and traditions. The most inner level is composed by four pairs of relationships.There are three elements in festivals: human, nature, and God. The most substantial structure of festivals is the four pairs of relationships which in details are the relationship between human and nature, the relationship between human and God, the relationship between human and human, and the relationship between a man and himself. Those four pairs of relationships are antitheses in daily life except in festivals.