Old Japanese Capital Local Community Festivals: The Matsugasaki Case

The aim of the article is to explore the importance of local festivals for building and strengthening social ties and solidarity between local community members in the Matsugasaki district of the old Japanese capital Kyoto. The analysis is based on the results of qualitative surveys conducted by the author in 2012-2013, 2015-2016 and 2018-2019 at three local festivals. During all three periods, the Summer festival and the Obon (The festival of the Dead) were studied, and during the last period, the Autumn festival, which was restored after a seven-year break, was also examined. The enterprising local actors playing a leading role in the preservation, organization and performance of these festivals have been identified, characterizing their activities and motivation. The relationships between the native and the newcomers in the neighborhood are investigated, considering the problems between them, arising from the non-admission of the newcomers to participate in the organization and performance of Obon rituals. Conclusions are reached on the ways in which local traditions have been preserved and/or changed over the years, indicating the factors influencing these processes.

The Envirolution Revolution: Raising Awareness of Climate Change Creatively Through Free and Accessible Community Engagement Festivals

HighlightsThe use of Freirean praxis and pedagogy is a powerful lens to use in understanding, and advancing, impactful place-based climate action. Using non-judgemental and holistic approaches, free community festivals have the capacity to engage large sections of society and therefore have the potential to mobilise shifts towards societal change.

Sarawak Covid-19: Effects of Pre-Festival Mobility and Festival Gatherings

Gathering to celebrate festivals is a common socio-cultural practice amongst Sarawak’s diverse groups. For untold years, individuals, households, villages and at times the entire communities get together to observe their various religious, cultural and community festivals. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic period, the practice of gathering to celebrate those festivals became a challenging practice. This is because density of population and intensity of social contacts are deemed to increase SARS-CoV-2 high transmissibility. In this paper, we analyzed the trend of COVID-19 active cases in Sarawak in the first half of the year 2021 and calibrated the parameter signifying the proportion of exposed population taking effective precautionary measures, κ in our model. Our findings suggest that after every festival celebration the value of κ is decreased, leading to the increased number of active cases. In addition, the pre-festival mobility change involving visits to the retail and grocery stores are higher than any other time. Therefore, the festival gatherings and increased pre-festival mobility are catalysts that accelerated the increment of the number of active COVID-19 cases in Sarawak. In light of this, we proposed that any form of festival related gathering ought to be avoided in order to curb any forms of outbreak in Sarawak.

Importance Et Contributions De La Fete ‘‘Wemԑxwe’’ Dans Le Developpement Des Communes De La Basse Vallee De L’oueme

Faced with the inability of the process of decentralization to achieve true grassroots development in Benin, people have turned towards the endogenous development initiatives. These initiatives refer to the community festivals that existed long before the advent of the decentralization process in Benin. This is a typical case of the “Wémԑxwé” festival in the lower Ouémé valley. This study aims to analyze the importance of socio-cultural realities in the development of localities. In order to understand the importance of community festivals in the development of local authorities, the documentation of this subject is practically non-existent. The participating observation and the field survey made it possible to collect the necessary data from a sample of 200 people. The sample, however, is composed of local elected representatives, local elites, members of the intermunicipal coordination committee of the "Wémԑxwe" festival, development associations, religious leaders, people, and the traditional and notable leaders of the lower valley of the Ouémé. Thus, the technique of “snowball” was used as a sampling method. The SWOT model (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) was used to analyze the results. According to this study, the community festival “Wémԑxwé” is of great importance in the development of local communities in the lower valley of Ouémé. Due to its yearly celebration, it leaves traces of development on the site having sheltered it. This includes socio-communal infrastructures and paths that were arranged and overlaid. It has invested approximately CFAF 246 324 508 in all the four communes of the lower Ouémé valley from the first edition in 2009 to the sixth edition in 2015.