In Tune with the World: A Theory of Festivity by Josef Pieper

Author:Josef Pieper [Pieper, Josef]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Catholicism, Philosophy, Religion
ISBN: 9781890318338
Publisher: St. Augustines Press
Published: 1999-07-01T22:00:00+00:00

VII

Lao-tzu132 has said that a man is not sick so long as sickness sickens him. Hence, things have not reached their sorriest pass as long as men are concerned over the disappearance of the festive principle from life. By the same token, the grumblings of cultural critics and the plaints of poets are the very opposite of hopelessness. But when, unnoticed and almost unnoticeable, sham festivals foist themselves on men in place of true festivity (as Socrates describes the flattering falsehood of the Sophists: it uses pleasure as a bait to catch folly and pretends to be that which it simulates133) — then the situation is really bad. Apparently there have been sham festivals all through the ages; decadence of festivity is an ever-present danger. The Late Roman Empire, for example, was rife with festal arrangements lacking the truly festive core, "les attributs de la fête sans le jour de la fête"134 — a typical phenomenon of a declining society. Naturally enough, in the past as well as in the present, the festivals most prone to such corruption have been those whose public character is unassailable. Even secularized society cannot — not yet — ignore Christmas. However, as everyone has observed, the real festival is almost disappearing behind the commercialized folderol that has come to the fore. The true content sometimes becomes distorted to a degree that is really grotesque. In Japan the opinion has been voiced in all seriousness that commercial advertising is not misusing the symbols of the Christmas festival, but rather that the Christian holiday has borrowed the various motifs so successful in the department store displays, in order to exert a more powerful influence on the public.135 In spite of all such nonsense, of course, both in Japan and elsewhere, the real Christmas continues to be celebrated undisturbed as the festival of God's Incarnation. Perhaps, however, the celebration is tending more and more to be non-public (although on the other hand this festival, like ritual worship in general, demands publicness, is "in itself" a public act). Which again shows how hard it is to arrive at dogmatic judgments about what festivals really are in human society.

Compared with the falsification, by the multiplying of pseudo-festive trappings, of festivals already existing as institutions, the creation of completely new festivals on the basis of a legislative act, feria ex senatusconsulto, is a relatively unambiguous problem, although those closely involved may find it difficult to see through the illusion. Granted, all festivals in one sense are "made" by men — not only celebrated but also instituted. Almost everything about festivals, including the great and traditional ones, is indubitably the result of human arrangements, from the fixing of a particular calendar day136 to the specific forms of the sacrifices, the ceremonies, the parades, and so on. Human institutions, then. Nevertheless, the Biblical sentence remains inviolate: that the festival is a day "the Lord has made" (Ps. 117, 24). It remains true because while man can make the celebration, he cannot make what is to be celebrated, cannot make the festive occasion and the cause for celebrating.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.