Not only anthropologists, but many other researchers who examine their own and other societies have clashed on this question. One of the versions is that celebrations are a way in which humans or groups of humans order their time. Another version is that celebrations are those which create the calendar. The natural world does not have special days or moments which could somehow be identified as special. Celebratory events are a human initiative to order the flow of time. Each event which orders time for you and gives you an overview of a period – in which something begins and something ends – is a celebration. If this is the case, then obviously celebrations contain the characteristics of the so-called rites of passage. Rites of passage are repeated, defined actions, with which humans mark out and notify others of their change from one status to another. All peoples in the world have rituals such as this; for example, almost everyone has a ritual in which a newborn child is introduced to society – for Latvians – krustabas, or a Christian christening, naming ceremonies. These are events with a defined sequence, which is followed by everyone; the event marks that he or she is no longer that which they were until now, but something totally different. Weddings and also funerals are rites of passage – someone leaves for another world, and they are no longer with us, they are somewhere else, but still connected to us. The rites of passage of all of the world cultures display that which is called an in-between or liminal stage (lat. liminus – border): that is, a borderline stage. Of course those who are found in this stage are no longer who they were, but have not yet reached the next stage. This can be observed, for example, at weddings: the bride and bridegroom are married in a registry office or in a church, and then there is a break of a few hours, and only around midnight do the newlyweds become man and wife completely. A liminal stage is necessary, and it is usually associated with various tests. Today this is usually performed as a joke; however in reality tests such as this usually happen all the time. From an anthropologist’s viewpoint, for example, exams are part of a rite of passage: an in-between stage in which people are tested. Knowledge, marks – they constitute the initiation ritual of Western civilisation. You could ask someone to cook pancakes or live in the forest for three days, in this case there would not be any difference from a physics exam in terms of function – it is a test which accompanies this in-between stage. Based on this perspective, the course of celebrations, that is, the series of events which mark the end of something and the beginning of something with a rite of passage and liminal status, always contain that which is called a role reversal or the loss of boundaries between social roles. You can imagine this most effectively by thinking of a carnival. The carnival is the classic vehicle for role reversal. You enter another stage, you are no longer that which you are in reality, and others don’t even know who you are. Carnivals are common in all the world’s cultures. Workmen can pretend they are kings and sultans, and vice versa – noblemen can be pirates, thieves, prostitutes. This stage, in which people have other roles, continues for some time. After the celebration is finished, people return to their previous roles. This is a structuralist view of celebrations. Any event which marks a transformation from one state to another is necessary, for us to know the calendar. In turn, the calendar is necessary for people to coordinate their activities. Something ends, something begins, and we are all aware of it. For example, the New Year means the end of the financial year – we have to pay all of our debts, massive social coordination happens at this time, although 31 December and 1 January are not essentially different from each other.
A different anthropological approach defines celebrations as closely related to beliefs and religion, by cultivating an attitude to the otherworldly and supernatural. Celebrations occur at a specific moment when a large group of people create a relationship with that which is not of this world. It does not matter whether they are the spirits of the ancestors or unknown forces – elves, ghosts, demons – or a monotheistic assumption about some absolute power. In any case, these moments have originally been used for communication with the otherworldly, the supernatural. The format of communication since then has been used to continue to mark or demonstrate our respect as a group to collective values, and also to the power which unites us. One example is our notions about the nation. Calendar celebrations are the so-called time of worship of civil religion – nationalism. Nationalism or the anthropology of nation is a fiction which has been introduced by modern nations after the industrial revolution to define the differences between people which came from various regions or nations. The category of “Latvians” on a national level did not exist until the end of the 19th century. There were farmers from Kurzeme, Zemgale and Vidzeme, there was the so-called Latvian language with dialects. But the assumption that we are all originally Latvians is artificially created. In order for this to exist, there must be an ideological conception of good and bad, which encompasses cosmology: what Latvians are, where have they come from, where are they going, their difficult journey, etc. These kind of mythological fictions which are not related to history are possessed by all peoples. There have to be defined activities which regularly remind people of these, and celebrations from this point of view represent general, necessary values which remind us of the sacred. In the first instance the definition of celebration is a mechanism for social coordination for the ordering of time, on the other hand it is a reminder of the sacred, supernatural, irrespective of what this is: God, nation, the European Union etc. Similar expressions can be observed in smaller social groups, which create their own calendar of celebrations, to assert an idea, mission, and values. A celebration is something special, related to all of the activity which occurs to highlight these: a massive mutual coordination, preparations. Almost always there is reference to the sacred – those who died fighting for freedom are mentioned, for example, the founders, sportsmen which have helped to reinforce the existence of their nation etc. In this way it is possible to read the “catalogue of sacredness” of the era, a sociological analysis can be undertaken, which outlines the most important otherworldly subjects and objects to society at the time.
Speaking about the visual side of celebrations – humans have the need to artificially divide up the natural: the world is fragmented. Special moments, communicative events are defined based on specific natural signs by putting authority into the hands of special people – the elderly, shamans. As this is related to artificial fragmentation, geometric symbolism should be present, because geometrical, straight lines are not present in nature, they are artificially created. The geometrical character of signs is ordered by homology between interruption, division, artificiality and their presentation in visual format. A different division is binary: if time can be divided into the “normal” and “special”, into celebratory times and the everyday, role reversal and the utilisation of oppositeness occurs. During celebrations everyday designations and symbols are not used. A division is demonstrated, for example, black and white are used, or both of these colours, in contrast with colourfulness. For example, in British society, a man’s celebratory dress has a formal, semi-formal and informal classification. Formal means a black suit with black socks and white shirts with a bow tie without exception – I have even had the colour of my socks checked when I have arrived for a reception with Prince Charles. “Semi-formal” allows a dark, not necessarily black suit with a light coloured shirt; “informal” – a jacket which is a different colour from the pants. Depending on the culture and social class, celebrations use visual opposites. You do not see glitter and pom-poms everyday on the streets, but they are worn at celebrations, in order to accent the special nature of the time or the event. Contrasts are used at weddings and funerals, because they signify two significant transformations. In many cultures a wedding means the culmination of an initiation ritual, a full transition into the adult sphere, a funeral – leaving the human world. Contrasts can be achieved with sound; drums are a sign of activity, a warning , in primitive cultures they are usually used to turn to God, the spirits and ancestors; however during moments of remembrance silence is used. If you consider the mass of cross-cultural contrasts alongside this, you can speak about visual codes in relative comparison, not in absolute categories, because world cultures do not have unified symbols.
The increase in the number of celebrations can be related to the fact that there are more and more groups appearing, small in number, which wish to identify themselves as social groups. If this, for example, is a shop, it wishes to be different from others, and this difference is achieved with a celebration. A fragmentation is obviously occurring, and this kind of group is occurring more and more often. From this perspective, the symbols of corporate identity – the name, company logo, colours – are each social group’s celebratory attributes. The State uses ideological symbols in the same way to assert its identity.
Material prepared by Ilze Martinsone