Mass Celebrations Research Articles

CROSSING THE BORDERS OF THE TRADITIONAL CULTURE IN LITHUANIAN AND LATVIAN CHILDREN PERIODICALS (1866–1940)

CROSSING THE BORDERS OF THE TRADITIONAL CULTURE IN LITHUANIAN AND LATVIAN CHILDREN PERIODICALS (1866–1940)

Post-Soviet Mass Celebration and Kul'Turnost': The Survey of Urban Art Festival 'White Nights in Perm-2012'

This paper employs category kul'turnost' for analysis of post-Soviet urban mass celebrations. Based on empirical data gathered during White Nights in Perm Festival-2012, paper delves into how Soviet ideological cliches and stereotypes are manifested in language of contemporary Russian urban inhabitants. The research setting is industrial city of Perm with approximately one million citizens. The research is based on a survey, conducted with 429 festival visitors. The results demonstrate that visitors have a complex structure of their opinions including cliches rooted in Soviet discursive heritage. Applying Bourdieu’s idea of the objectivisation of objectifier, paper reflects on influence of survey on usage of Soviet discursive heritage. The results suggest necessity to regard Soviet discursive heritage as an influential source of signifiers for articulating opinions in post-Soviet Russia. The paper also questions usage of Western originated scales as main tool for festival impact evaluation.

Los eventos culturales masivos como patrimonio intangible: lineamientos para articular sitios históricos del norte cordobés

Mass cultural events are organized mass celebrations that generate an impact in the city that produces them appropriating the place where are inserted. These festivities of traditional popular expression construct part of the models and the Organization of these cities. They represent a process of collective construction and social inclusion where cultivated its relationship with the inherited, nature and space. ICOMOS and UNESCO, say that the tangible and intangible heritages are united and intangible heritage is constituted by that invisible part that resides in the spirit of cultures itself. A system of urban cultural events can stimulate the economy of its urban centers, reaffirm their identity features and may be heritage of national culture. Urban and regional intervention strategies contribute to a vision and a comprehensive design of urban spaces, and lead to less impact to preserve the history of the place and the event.

THE EVOLUTION OF ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN PLANNING OBJECT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SPATIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE MASS PERFORMANCES

The article presents the evolution of architectural and urban planning object in the context of the spatial organization of the mass performances. By the architectural and urban object we mean a certain environment or building intended for mass events. The first types of mass performances appeared in ancient Greece. Various forms of mass celebrations existed in ancient Rome, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, etc. Each type of mass performances had its own certain architectural structure or entertaining area. For example, a gladiatorial combats in ancient Rome were held in the Coliseum, and the medieval carnivals generally took place in town squares and streets.

Colonial Counterpoint: Music in Early Modern Manila (review)

Reviewed by: Colonial Counterpoint: Music in Early Modern Manila Raul C. Navarro (bio) Colonial Counterpoint: Music in Early Modern Manila. D. R. M. Irving. Currents in Latin American and Iberian Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. x + 394 pp., 18 half-tones. ISBN: 9780195378269, 0195378261 (Hardback), $24.95. Colonial Counterpoint: Music in Early Modern Manila is by far the best work on Philippine historical musicology in terms of new data presented. It attempts to put into perspective the influence of Western musical practice on the musical traditions of the indios. The book is in three parts: Colonial Cultures, Enharmonic Engagements, and Strict Counterpoint. As these titles aptly describe the main parts, the subtitles guide the reader in his/her journey through the different sections of the book: (I) Colonial Capital, Global City; Musical Transactions and Intercultural Exchange; (II) Mapping Musical Cultures; The Hispanization of Filipino Music; Courtship and Syncretism in Colonial Genres; (III) Cathedrals, Convents, Churches, and Controversies; and, Fiesta Filipina. [End Page 151] Part I sets the stage for the meeting of western colonizers and the inhabitants of the islands. It situates the Spanish colonizers and the succeeding waves of European migration to the archipelago and the eventual opening up of local cultures to foreign domination (in terms of the material and spiritual). Th is acculturation includes the initial introduction of music, instruments and performance practice, and the natives' eventual adaptation through improvisation and approximation of the new musical experience. Part II orients the reader to the "anthropological" work undertaken by the religious orders to map out local cultures—the natives' major languages, differing cultures, dances, and songs. Knowledge of the local cultures was eventually used to restructure the natives' worldview. Syncretic forms and approximation of praxes eventually resulted in this deliberate cultural manipulation and imposition. Part III discusses the rules by which the natives were to function—in musical practice, and the norms that resulted in the adopted foreign forms. What also resulted was an imitation that is removed from that of Mother Spain—brown (character), Asian (folk leanings), family/barangay-oriented (with very weak regard and sense for the national), in direct "counterpoint" and contrast to the internationalist (in terms of evangelical mission), white, and king/church-oriented Spaniard. The Catholic religion did not escape the same fate. It was received and appropriated by the natives with as much folk belief (i.e., Dios replaced the notion of Bathala, the native god; saints replaced the anitos, spirits of the departed relatives) and secularism (i.e., operatic overtures and dance tunes played during mass celebrations) as they can infuse it with. Irving recalls the theoretical framework in Said's use of the music compositional device counterpoint in Culture and Imperialism (1994) to frame his analytical tool for the present work. He also mentions Foucault, Marx, and the structuralists Saussure and Levi-Strauss as guides that informed his analyses of data. However, the work leans more heavily on the formality of the polyphonic parts to highlight the music and sociohistorical narrative of the early-modern Manila under Spain. Irving emphasizes the musical parts of the polyphonic genre to highlight opposing cultures, worldviews, and reactions, and mentioning, quite often, the counter and parallel voices that inform the history of the music of the Philippines vis-à-vis Spain. Counterpoint, as analytical tool, falls short in comparison with the scientific bases that inform and make legitimate Foucaultian and Marxist theories of society. To argue further, I find the emphasis on counterpoint (that does not explain the social aspects of the music history of the native) too narrow for a socio-historical research. Said may have used the musical device to identify parallelisms and multi-voices in the aforementioned work to analyze novels based on the history and relationship of England with its colonies, but he also relied heavily on "scholarship in anthropology, history, and area studies." The novels [End Page 152] analyzed by Said (Dickens' Great Expectations, Hughes' The Fatal Shore, Carter's Botany Bay, Conrad's Nostromo, Kipling's Kim, etc.), peopled by fictional characters, were used to give life to the narratives of England's colonial experience vis-à-vis the colonies/Orient. Th ose characters can be compared with the...

Monsinjoras Petras Baltuška: dvasingumo kelias (1970-2010 m.)

Mgr. Petras Baltuska, the son of Barbora Vebrinytė (1908–1999) and Rapolas Baltuska (1888–1933), was born on 20th November 1930 in the village of Užkalniai in the parish of Ramygala. In 1950 – 1954 he studied at the Interdiocesan theological seminary in Kaunas. After graduation on 12th September 1954 he was ordained a priest by bishop Kazimieras Paltarokas. Mgr. Petras Baltuska for sixteen years worked as a vicar in three parishes: St. Dominic, Palevene (1954–1956), St. Apostle Evangelist Matthew, Anyksciai (1956–1964), and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Zarasai (1964–1970). Mgr. Petras Baltuska has been a pastor of the St. Antonio of Padova church in Daugailiai for forty years since his appointment to these responsibilities in 1970. Apart from these four main parishes, he has been doing pastoral ministry to other neighbouring parishes. For thirty-six years out of his fifty-six years of the priesthood he worked in the hard times of Soviet occupation. The current year is jubiliant for Mgr. Petras Baltuska. He is celebrating his 80th birth anniversary. Forty years, or half of his life-time, have been in service to the land of Daugailiai and its people. Petras Baltuska is an ingenious constructor of the Living Church. His activities involve: Mass celebration, homilies, visits to parishers, preparing children for the Sacraments (First Confession, First Holy Communion, Marriage), administering the Sacraments (Baptism, Marriage, Extreme Unction). He has accomplished considerable work of repairing, decorating churches and carrying out various household duties. During the Soviet time the Monsignor had joined in the fight for the rights and liberties of the Church, and when the Independence was restored, he was among the first priests in the diocese of Panevėžys to go to schools to teach religion. Mgr. Petras Baltuska is a vigorous generator and producer of ideas for bringing back from oblivion the memory of the fellow countrymen and other distinguished persons and its preservation. He joined with others in establishing a branch of the Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Science in Utena and takes an active part in its activities (reports, papers, discourses, contributions to the local and national press publications). Rev. Petras Baltuska has attracted attention of the Church authorities for his efficient involvement in nurturing spirituality. On 15th October 2001 the Church authorities conferred a title of Canon on him for his distinguished merits. On 14th July 2006 the Holy Father Benedictus XVI designated Can. Petras Baltuska as his Holiness’ Chaplain – monsignor. On 6th July 2004 Petras Baltuska was awarded a Cross of the Knight of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas. He is the first parson of a small Lithuanian village, Daugailiai, on whom an Order of Gediminas has been conferred. Article in Lithuanian

Traveling through time: Respect and use of Virgin Mary icons in Serbian tradition and nowadays

The beginning of the process of repeated actualisation and revitalisation in Serbia coincided with the beginning of the social, economic and political crisis on the territory of the former SFRY, which took place in the beginning of 1990s.On the official political (and life) scene during the 1990s and in the first decade of the 21 century, religious symbols have been used liberally. In everyday life, casinos, brothels and new cars are consecrated, religious paraphernalia become current fashion accessories, icons are used to decorate premises of political parties, tycoons and businessmen, while images of saints entice customers from consumer goods, such as paper napkins, towels, key rings, spirits bottles, etc. Festive days, holidays, transitional and critical situations are frequently marked with mass gatherings under religious text or implications, but certainly once again using religious paraphernalia, only this time those which evoke collectivity and national unity. Thus, while in public premises it is usual to see an icon of St. Sava, the first Serbian archbishop, as well as the icon of the White Angel, a detail from the painting The myrrh-bearers on Christ's grave, at mass celebrations, but equally so at revolutionary street protest rallies (which in the capital were plentiful during the last dozen years), as well as at celebrations of town Patron Saint's days and various festivities, there appears the image of the Theotokos. Leading processional walks of the towns, it emerges as a symbol which manages to mobilise the nation with its fullness and multi-layered meaning. Political and ideological usage of Virgin Mary icons is characteristic of not only modern Serbian society. This paper also brings the review of traditional cult and respect of Virgin Mary and Her icons and their usage in secular context in previous historical periods.

A Hall of Mirrors: Sovietizing Culture under Stalinism

This article explores how culture in the USSR became “Soviet.” Malte Rolf describes how different fields of communication and cultural production generated criteria that could be used to attach the label “Soviet” to all features of culture. Sovietizing culture was a work in progress, and various institutions, agencies, and experts actively participated in defining an adequate “Soviet style.” Focusing on this interplay of agencies and taking mass festivals as an example, Rolf portrays the dynamics of a growing selfreferentiality within Soviet culture in the 1930s in such cultural spheres as architecture, city planning, and mass celebrations. Under Stalinism, canonized “Soviet” standards also set the agenda for everyday communications. By reproducing an officially privileged agenda, participants in these daily communications encouraged a cultural inner Sovietization during the prewar decade. This article explores how and why the cultural canon of a closed system of “Soviet” references made its way so smoothly into die microstructures of society.

Meet the "New" Europeans: EU Accession and the Branding of Bulgaria

Meet the “New” Europeans: EU Accession and the Branding of Bulgaria Nadia Kaneva (bio) Abstract Post-Communist Bulgaria, among other former Eastern bloc nations, has recently turned to nation branding as a way to present a new face to the world. This paper examines how the Bulgarian government used nation branding in the context of preparations for accession to the European Union. The paper focuses more specifically on two government-commissioned commercials: one on occasion of the Treaty for Accession signed in 2005; the second commemorating the country’s formal accession on January 1, 2007. Adopting a perspective of cultural critique, the paper sets out to achieve three main goals. First, it briefly describes the institutional government framework that supported Bulgaria’s nation branding efforts. Second, it presents a historically informed close reading of the two commercials and explores their underlying ideological assumptions about Bulgarian nationhood in the post-Communist period. Finally, the paper draws conclusions about the social and political function of nation branding in contemporary Bulgaria and, by extension, in other former Communist countries. Meet the “New” Europeans: EU Accession and the Branding of Bulgaria April 25, 2005 marked the signing in Brussels of the Treaty of Accession that set the date for the admission of Bulgaria and Romania into the European Union (EU). This historic act came ten years after the two countries had formally applied for membership in the Union and almost 16 years after the wave of “velvet revolutions” swept over Central and Eastern Europe. On that momentous day, in the center of Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia, 616 blue balloons were released—one for each day that remained until the date of accession, January 1, 2007. However, while balloons were soaring above Sofia’s central square, coverage of the Treaty in the Western European media focused on problems with corruption, poverty, and ethnic minorities in Bulgaria and Romania, showing the mounting “enlargement fatigue” of the EU.1 Only a month later, on May 29, 2005, France rejected the EU Constitution and on June 2nd the Netherlands followed as well.2 The French and Dutch negative votes once again demonstrated a growing weariness among the “old” Europeans toward the idea of welcoming more “new” Europeans into the EU utopia. Recognizing this problem, one local television station in Bulgaria commented, “A long time needs to pass before they get to know us and stop being afraid of us. They will have to change and so will we.”3 Despite rising Euro-skepticism, the formal process of enlargement continued and on January 1, 2007 Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU. Once again mass celebrations and elaborate ceremonies marked the occasion in both countries; the speeches of local politicians sounded notes of relief after a long and difficult preparation for accession.4 However, both Bulgaria and Romania joined the Union under a set of restrictions and unprecedented conditions including, “the power by the European Commission, the union’s executive, to suspend some of the rights that come with membership, like generous economic aid.”5 Thus, notwithstanding the elevated mood in Sofia and Bucharest, mutual acceptance—both formal and symbolic—between old and new Europeans remains problematic. This issue occupies a central place in the rhetoric of political elites across the European continent and continues to attract media attention. However, alongside the speeches of politicians and the endless media commentaries on this topic, another force has been summoned to influence the meeting of old and new Europeans—advertising and, more specifically, nation branding. Bulgaria is one among many former Communist countries that turned to nation branding in order to present a new and more appealing national image in the context of EU enlargement. This paper examines the image Bulgaria seeks to put forward through nation branding and analyzes the implicit ideological frameworks that shape the construction of these messages. To address this set of issues, this paper looks at how the Bulgarian government has employed television commercials in an effort to re-brand the country both to Western European audiences and to its own citizens. Specifically, the paper focuses on two government-commissioned commercials: one, directed towards Western Europeans, aired in 2005 to commemorate the Treaty for Accession; the second...

The 'Heroic Life' of a Friend of Stalinism: Romain Rolland and Soviet Culture

After considering existing biographical, sociological, and political explanations for Western intellectual Sovietophilia in the 1930s, this article develops what is called a transnational or transsystemic explanatory framework. It does so through an in-depth case study of Romain Rolland, perhaps the most distinguished interwar European intellectual to become an uncritical apologist for Stalinism. The article analyses points of direct contact between the French writer and the Soviet system, in particular his 1935 Soviet visit and audience with Stalin. It also considers the role of intermediaries between Rolland and the Soviets, including Rolland's longtime correspondent Maksim Gor'kii, the Old Bolshevik cultural diplomat Aleksandr Arosev, and Rolland's Russian wife Mariia Kudasheva. Finally, the article examines the cultural and intellectual underpinnings of Rolland's affinity for the USSR, including his participation in a pan-European, anti-fascist culture; it juxtaposes this to Soviet views of Rolland, including the mass celebration of Rolland within the emergent Stalinist culture.

The Art of Nation-Building: Pageantry and Spectacle at Quebec's Tercentenary

In 1908 Canada celebrated its 300th anniversary - the tercentenary of Champlain's founding of Quebec City. In two glorious weeks of parades, ceremonies, balls, and festivities, Canadians commemorated their history in a spectacle that would not be surpassed until the centennial of 1967. The climax of the 1908 celebration was an historical pageant in which 4000 sumptuously costumed citizens re-enacted classic events in Canada's history. Canada's leading painters were also there to capture these memorable scenes for posterity. The past was being celebrated, but with the present and the future in mind. In The Art of Nation-Building, H.V. Nelles uses contemporary literary techniques to convey the scope, colour, and intensity of the tercentenary from various perspectives. Drawing on the intimate diaries and letters of leading social and political figures, he leads us behind the scenes, disclosing the politics of memory, the theatrics of history, and the making of a modern monarchy. Nelles reveals what we actually do when we commemorate, how we use the past, and the multivocal character of mass celebration This richly illustrated, thought-provoking interpretation of public celebrations offers a novel perspective on Quebec and on the upcoming celebration of the millennium. Winner of two prestigious prizes: the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize (CHA) and the Prix Lionel-Groulx (IHAF).

Tekstura: Russian Essays on Visual Culture

Fascinated by the myth of the Russian avant-garde and scornful of official art, the West has been selective in its engagement with Russian visual culture. Yet how do contemporary Russian scholars and critics themselves approach the history of visual culture in the former Soviet Union? Taking its title from a Russian word that can refer to the texture of life, painting, or writing, Tekstura assembles 13 key essays in art history and cultural theory by Russian-language writers. The essays erase boundaries between high and low, official and dissident, avant-garde and socialist realism. Everything visual is deemed worthy of analysis, whether painting or propaganda banners, architecture or candy wrappers, mass celebrations or urban refuse. The editors have selected works of the past 20 years by philosophers, literary critics, film scholars, and art historians as well as influential earlier essays by Bakhtin, Voloshinov, and Eisenstein. Compiled for general readers and specialists alike, Tekstura is a resource for anyone interested in Russian and Soviet cultural history or in new theoretical approaches to the visual.

Medieval Liturgy as Theatre: the Props

It may be debated how far the liturgy of the medieval Church (in particular the Mass) can be considered as ‘drama’, but its theatrical impact and organization are undeniable. Staged within a distinct space, the principal act of the Church’s worship had its own text and directions, which through contemplation and allegory summarized Christ’s terrestrial experiences and various aspects of the Christian faith. The Mass and other liturgical celebrations were events to be visualized, both externally and internally. It has been said of medieval plays that their fundamentally visual nature… so apparent to [a] medieval audience, often escapes the attention of modern scholars. The lines drawn between disciplines hinder easy access to methods that would enable readers to pass from a text to a visual reconstruction of it. Nonetheless the readers of dramatic texts need to visualize stage properties, costumes, and sets, and, when appropriate, to see beyond their literal meaning to their symbolic import. Further, readers must see gesture, placement, and interrelationship of actors, and understand how these visual elements contribute to the content.

The Festival of Progress: The Globalizing World‐System and the Transformation of the Caracas Carnival

While the carnival in Latin America functions as a form of popular entertainment, it can also be viewed as having other roles. Robert Lavenda examines the Caracas carnival as an event which is atonce symptomatic of the social reality that surrounds it and able to bring about change within Venezuelan society. As popular culture, the carnival has been an important mediator in directing this society toward the modern capitalist worJd‐system. Lavenda traces how, under the leadership o f Antonio Guzman Blanco, Venezuela took a major step in the second half of the nineteenth certury towards becoming a modern country. Under Guzman's and other modernizers' influence the old carnival, which had been characterized as a wild and rowdy small‐group activity, was transformed to bring it into line with contemporary European models, that is, a highly organized and closely monitored mass celebration. The author discusses how the new power relationships that had developed in the city were reflected by the composition of the carnival's governing board. By setting up a series of oppositions between the South American and European versions of the carnival, Caracas' ruling elite hoped to orient the masses away from the former values and towards the latter.