Festivals according to the Piepster
Josef Pieper strikes again! We talk about his book, In Tune with the World, and what ingredients Pieper says are required to have a true festival.
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In this stimulating and still-timely study, Josef Pieper takes up a theme of paramount importance to his thinking – that festivals belong by rights among the great topics of philosophical discussion. As he develops his theory of festivity, the modern age comes under close and painful scrutiny. It is obvious that we no longer know what festivity is, namely, the celebration of existence under various symbols
Pieper exposes the pseudo-festivals, in their harmless and their sinister forms: traditional feasts contaminated by commercialism; artificial holidays created in the interest of merchandisers; holidays by coercion, decreed by dictators the world over; festivals as military demonstrations; holidays empty of significance. And lastly we are given the apocalyptic vision of a nihilistic world which would seek its release not in festivities but in destruction.
Formulated with Pieper’s customary clarity and elegance, enhanced by brilliantly chosen quotations, this is an illuminating contribution to the understanding of traditional and contemporary experience.
About the Topic:
– Festivals can only arise from a working day (fast before the feast).
– It has to be leisurely – a realm of activity that is meaningful in itself.
– Ingredients of a festival:
– Play or leisurely
– Contemplation (“the simple intuition of reason. The mind’s eye resting on whatever manifests itself.”)
– Phenomenon of wealth (Existential richness – aka abundance)
– Affirmation – (Pieper says affirmation is the substance of festivity.) Festivals are impossible to the “naysayers”. The more money he has, and above all the more leisure, the more desperate is this impossibility to him.
– Joy (Joy is the response of a love receiving what he loves). A festival becomes a true festivity only when man affirms the goodness of his existence by offering a response of joy.
– In concrete form. In reality.
– Public in nature; affairs of the community
QUOTES FROM THE BOOK:
“A festival can arise only out of the foundation of a life whose ordinary shape is given by the working day.”
“Man understands the work and accepts it for what it really is, namely, the “tilling of the field” which always includes both happiness and toil, satisfaction as well as sweat of the brow, joy as well as the consumption of vital energy. If one element in these pairs is suppressed, the reality of work is falsified and festivity is ruled out.”
“To celebrate a festival means to do to do something which is in no way tied to other goals, which has been removed from all “so that” and “in order to.” True festivity cannot be imagined as residing anywhere but in the realm of activity that is meaningful in itself.”
“In fact a real festival can scarcely be conceived unless the ingredient of play has entered into it.”
“The concept of festivity is inconceivable without an element of contemplation. This does not mean exerting the argumentative intellect, but the simple intuition of reason; not the unrest of thought, but the mind’s eye resting on whatever manifests itself.”
“This is that life above all others which man should live, in the contemplation of divine beauty; this makes man immortal.” – Plato
“A festival is essentially a phenomenon of wealth; not, to be sure, the wealth of money, but of existential richness.”
“Festivity is joy and nothing else.” “Where love rejoices, there is festivity.” – both quotes from Chrysostom.
“Joy is the response of a lover receiving what he loves.”
On Memorial Days:
“Memorial Days are not in themselves festival days. Strictly speaking, the past cannot be celebrated festively unless the celebrant community still draws glory and exaltation from that past, not merely as reflected history, but by virtue of a historical reality still operative in the present.”
“Nevertheless, it remains the sole foundation for festivity, no matter what happens to be celebrated in concerto. An as the radical nature of negation deepens, and consequently as anything but ultimate arguments becomes ineffectual, it becomes more necessary to refer to this ultimate foundation. By ultimate foundation I mean the conviction that the prime festive occasion, which alone can ultimately justify all celebration, really exists; that to, reduce it to the most concise phrase, at bottom everything that is, is good, and it is good to exist. For man cannot have the experience of receiving what is loved, unless the world and existence as a whole represent something good and therefore beloved to him.”
“Festivity is impossible to the naysayer. The more money he has, and above all the more leisure, the more desperate is this impossibility to him.”
“Festivity lives on affirmation. Even celebrations for the dead, All Souls and Good Friday, can never be truly celebrated except on the basis of faith that all is well with the world and life as a whole.”
“A festival becomes true festivity only when man affirms the goodness of his existence by offering the response of joy.”
“Strictly speaking, however, it is insufficient to call affirmation of the world a mere prerequisite and premise for festivity. In fact it is far more; it is the substance of festivity. Festivity, in its essential core, is nothing but the living out of this affirmation.”
“To celebrate a festival means to live out, for some special occasion and in an uncommon manner, the universal assent to the world as a whole.”
Broken up in 3 parts:
1. There can be no more radical assent to the world than the praise of God, the lauding of the Creator of this same world.
2. The ritual festival is the most festive form that festivity can possibly take.
3. There can be no deadlier, more ruthless destruction of festivity than refusal of ritual praise.
“In order for a festival to emerge out of human efforts, something divine must be added, which alone makes possible the otherwise impossible.”
When a festival goes as it should, men receive something that it is not in human power to give. This is the by now almost forgotten reason for the age-old custom of men wishing one another well on great festival days….but the real thing we are wishing is the “success” of the festive celebration itself, not just its outer forms and enrichments, bot the trimmings, but the gift that is meant to be the true fruit of the festival: Renewal, transformation, rebirth. Nowadays, to be sure, all this can barely be sensed behind the trite formula: “Happy Holidays.”
“Festivals are public by nature; they are affairs of the community”
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About the author, Adam
Adam is the Director of Communications for the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma, CEO of St. Michael Catholic Radio, Co-host of TCMS, Author from Ascension Press, Husband and Father of 5 children.