Festive folk culture of France: historical retrospective of formation and development

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to study the formation and development of the French festive
folk culture in historical retrospect, to determine its cultural and value components. The
methodology of work is based on the historical and system-structural principles of research. The
purpose and objectives of the publication led to the use of such research methods: analysis and
synthesis, which enabled to identify and analyze the main historical stages of the formation and
development of the French festive folk culture. The system-structural method allowed to reveal the
cultural and value components of the subject of research. Scientific novelty consists in the study of
the theoretical understanding of the historical retrospective of the formation of the French festive
folk culture, the discovery and justification of its cultural and value components. Conclusions. The
study made it possible to state that the whole history of revolutionary holidays can be understood as
a vivid illustration of such blindness: a holiday, which wishes to be free and spontaneous, becomes
obnoxious with caution and coercion; it continually distributes people to the caste. On the chosen
and despicable, although on the eve of the eager to merge altogether; it turns a parody and ends in
a void. The maniacal obsession of the revolutionary epoch of holidays is a history of deep
frustration. In such conditions, holidays can only exacerbate false praises of the world and heart
unity and understanding. And so do decorative functions. Holidays become colorful facades,
fictions, ghosts, whose purpose - to conceal the oppressive reality. Murdering irony of events:
precisely this definition of the eighteenth century gave the French folk holidays.
Key words: festive folk culture, folk speech, festive ceremony, festive ritual, festive behavior,
festive conjuncture