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A FESTIVITY CALENDAR: TRANSFORMATIONS AND STATE POWER IN LATVIA
Abstract
Festivities, national and public holidays have to be regarded as the antithesis of everyday life, they may be considered a universal phenomenon of culture and human existence. The growing interest in the festivity phenomenon is directly linked with the extensive changes occurring in the culture of the last three decades. During a transition period in human life and society when social structures grow weaker or are transforming, festivities carry a special functional load. By reflecting the changes in social landmarks, a festivity creates a cultural setting for value-normative regulators of social behavior. The contemporary youth, who were already born in the time of independent Latvia, typically have a different world outlook which is almost free of the ideological ideas of Soviet times and is much closer to the culture of Western Europe and America. This paper is concerned with the research on the transformations in Latvia's calendar caused by the change and influence of the power. State ceremonialism in general and specific ceremonial practices such as celebration of international days and public national holidays in particular express not only the relationship between the state and society but also the ideological power. In this respect the ritualized †dialogism' between state and people is related to the †aesthetics of power' based on the concept of carnival suitable for approaching the masses and to the concept of memory, preserving the ancestor's values, and survival in general.
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