WHY DO WE HAVE SO MANY CARNIVALS IN TOWN TODAY? AN EVENT BETWEEN RITUAL, POLITICS AND FESTIVAL

• Authors: Stavělová Daniela
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Since the late 1990s in the Czech Republic, rural carnival celebrations in urban environments have become a phenomenon through which to experience and gain knowledge of cultural patterns associated with the pre-industrial period. This article explores some of the key elements that make carnival tradition an ideal resource for reimagining festivities in the modern era. The study also highlights the ways communication takes place within the public space and the sharing of common ideas through non-verbal means, which significantly strengthening society’s capacity for social resilience. The article focuses on carnivals held since the 2014 in Prague and its surroundings, examining how their contemporary manifestations are a tool for individual districts to make certain groups of inhabitants and their visions more visible. Based on long-term qualitative research on these events, the paper analyses the process of ‘carnivalisation’ and ‘communitisation’ in recent times and reflects on the role of collective memory in constructing the form of today’s carnivals. The main question asked is what kind of event these newly rethought carnivals represent. Carnival is perceived here as a politicised process of community building, lifestyle narration, and/or social protest.

Keywords

EN

CARNIVAL; COMMUNITY; URBAN; POLITICS; PRAGUE; CZECH REPUBLIC

• Publisher: Institute of Ethnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Slovenský národopis (Slovak Ethnology)
• Year: 2023
• Volume: 71
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 342 – 364

Contributors

author

Stavělová Daniela

• Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Na rovni 8, 162 00 Praha 6, Czech Republic

• https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8989-559X

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/SN.2023.4.33