An Intercultural Study Of Traditional Burmese Festivals

Festival is regarded as a nation’s splendid cultural treasure andcrystallization. It is an important carrier of cultural inheritance, and a vitalwindow and platform to spread a nation’s culture throughout the world inthe most direct way. Myanmar is a Burmese-dominated nation. Throughoutthe long history, Burmese people have created their own specific culture bygreat wisdom and arduous labor. Among various cultural ingredients, thetraditional festival custom, which plays a leading role in the process ofcultural development of Myanmar, is one of the essential components. Onthe basis of relevant theories of folklore, this thesis tries to present thereaders with a complete system of traditional Burmese culture throughrelative overall analysis and research of traditional festivals and culture ofBurmese from multidimensional angles.Focusing on traditional Burmese festivals, this thesis is divided intofive chapters:Chapter I gives a brief introduction to the purpose and significance ofthe topic, its research methods, and an objective evaluation of the researchsituation at home and abroad.Chapter II generalizes the different types of traditional festivals inMyanmar. The author classifies those festivals into three categoriesaccording to their origins and introduces them separately: the Buddhismfestivals, the divinity worship festivals, the social and productive relationsfestivals.Chapter III concentrates on the cultural connotation of traditionalBurmese festivals in terms of sense of value, social psychology,interpersonal relationship with the help of all kinds of references andmaterials.Chapter IV introduces four functions of traditional Burmese festivalsbased on functionalism theory of folklore, namely, inheritance function, educational function, ceremonial function and mental comfort function.Chapter V analyzes the influences which traditional Burmese festivalsexert on Myanmar’s cultural areas and other ethnic minority groups’ culturefrom the perspective of culture effect and modernization, and alsointroduced the development trends and features of traditional Burmesefestivals in current society.In the end, the author summarizes the relations between traditionalBurmese festivals and Myanmar’s ethnic culture, and points out that thetraditional Burmese festival not only embodies a significant carrier ofcultural inheritance, but also fully displays a reflection of traditionalBurmese culture.