Contemporary Spiritual Value Of Chinese Traditional Festivals

Chinese traditional festivals are the temporal fabric of Chinese culture. Handed down through the ages, they embody our nation’s emotions, ideas, thoughts and values. The author chose to title this dissertation Contemporary Spiritual Value of Chinese Traditional Festivals out of consideration for the state of the transmission of traditional festivals and in the contexts of our epoch which witnesses the merge of international and domestic concerns for the "intangible cultural heritage." Based upon both research on historical documents and a review of the current situation, this thesis endeavors to achieve a more complete study about Chinese traditional festivals. In particular, the focus is placed on the core elements of traditional festivals and the transmission of their values in contemporary society. This paper is divided into four chapters, preceded by an Introduction and followed by a Conclusion.The Introduction discusses the background, significance, methods and content of the research. As far as the research background is concerned, the backbones of this part are a systematic survey of both the general studies conducted so far and the specific research carried out under the perspective of the "intangible cultural heritage". The dissertation’s Conclusion summarizes the key aspects of this study. At the same time, by taking into account current reality, the Conclusion attempts to make a more objective, just and thorough evaluation in the hope of providing a useful reference material for the future development of Chinese traditional festivals.Chapter Ⅰ describes "the contemporary loss of Chinese traditional festivals." In this chapter, the author mainly discusses some new problems being faced by traditional festivals today and the necessity for improvements, that is, the central issue of’what must be abandoned in order to create something new’. Concretely, the discussion is divided into two parts:a section about "The decline of the festivals’ customs" and another about "The progressive decline of the value of festivals." Eventually, the analysis made in these two sections allows the author to look into the necessity of a favorable development of traditional festivals even under the conditions of a new age.The second chapter discusses the root values of Chinese traditional festivals and is the most demanding of the dissertation as it requires both deep philosophical insights and knowledge of the dynamism of living customs and festivals. This chapter argues that, to address reasonably the issue of festivals, one requires a combination of the "vulgar" dimension of festivals and customs with the concept of "elegant" typical of Chinese traditional philosophy. Such approach has neither rules to follow nor precedents to refer to in academic research. As a result, it poses a high level of difficulty. Through extensive analysis of the literature and after four different field investigations, the author has singled out some core concepts which constitute the main body of this chapter. The chapter is divided into two parts:the first discusses the philosophical concepts of "heaven","earth" and "humanity"; the second describes the concepts of "benevolence","etiquette" and "reverence" as the soul of traditional festivals.The third chapter is concerned with "the value of Chinese traditional festivals in the modern context." This chapter defines core concepts such as "value","spiritual value","modernity" and the like. This discussion further complements the systematic approach of the dissertation. Here, the author interprets the functional significance of traditional festivals from the perspective of their embedded values and cultural role.The fourth chapter aims at expounding the means for the realization of Chinese traditional festivals’spiritual values. The approach of this chapter takes into account the current practice and draws lessons from Japan, South Korea and other countries which have accumulated a more advanced experience in inheriting and preserving traditional festivals. Finally, this chapter explores more favorable ways to develop traditional festivals by adopting two perspectives. The first takes "the people" as foundation, i.e., the construction of a culture of festivals must be people-oriented. The second places "transformation" as an essential element, i.e., the culture of traditional festivals "transforms" people’s thinking. Other aspects discussed in this chapter include: the cultural appeal of festivals, their sacred context, and the values embedded in the festivals.