The very word "holiday" evokes pleasant memories, fills with warmth and joy. This concept is always closely related to a good mood and a happy time. People love to anticipate this event, enjoy the pre-holiday bustle, they like to admire the beauty of the action itself. But at the same time, few people think that a holiday is not just an event, date or an occasion to get together, it is a cultural phenomenon that has been seriously studied by more than one generation of scientists.
Traditional folk form of recreation. The simplest definition can be given to the concept of "holiday". In scientific terms, a holiday is a special phenomenon, the most important component of human life, a social and cultural phenomenon.
Even a small analysis of the origin of the term "holiday" in languages that have an important influence on the history of European culture shows that the holiday is associated with dancing, fun, feasting, religious worship, important dates in the history of the people and the state. From Latin we know the term "fiesta" - folk festivities, and the Russian word "holiday" comes from the adjective "idle", which means "not busy".
There are a number of definitions of this term. But all researchers note the dual nature of the holiday: it is simultaneously focused on the past and directed to the future. With the help of the holiday, the traditional experience is reproduced each time, and so it is passed on from generation to generation in time. Spiritual union with the living takes place and a connection with ancestors is felt. In the atmosphere of a holiday, a person feels at the same time a person and a member of a single team. There is easy communication, without which the normal life of people is impossible.
For a long time, the holiday in culture followed from the calendar system and at the same time governed this system. That is, calendar holidays are based on cyclical natural time and reflect the most important stages in the life of human society. Therefore, in periods of epochal changes, it is the calendar and the entire system of holidays that undergo significant changes.
The holiday breaks the daily flow of time, it compensates for the inaccessible and even forbidden pleasures on weekdays. It is located at the junction between two levels of human being: real and utopian (illusory). During the holiday, society is allowed to deviate from the rules and norms - moral, social, ethical. People are immersed in another world, where everything is possible. During this period, a special relationship is established. Once in a festive atmosphere, individuals of different views, character and behavior begin to behave in a similar way. So a holiday for society acts as a means of relieving stress and is simply necessary to maintain the psychological balance of the human collective.
Laughter - such a simple thing and an integral part of a fiesta - actually plays a key role as a cultural and psychological phenomenon. The so-called zone of laughter in society becomes a zone of contact. In the festive commotion, "causeless" laughter is often heard, which speaks of joy, exultation. Carnivals are a prime example of this. A person is able to carry out many activities alone, but never to celebrate. Individual members of the team may react in different ways to different comical situations, but common laughter expresses mutual understanding, the rallying of a group of people, and informal equality among them.
Significant dates and events were always celebrated in the bosom of the family, they always visited the temple and went out “to the people”, on the street. This was the expression of adherence to traditions, through which society seeks intangible support for its stability. And at the same time, people strive to make festive leisure more interesting and in line with the spirit of the time.
The holiday relies on well-established traditions, constantly strives to revive them, therefore it is accompanied by rituals and ceremonies, but it is never reduced to them alone. And thus contributes to the development, renewal and enrichment of traditions.
