The holiday in the modern citizen’s lifeworld: new notions and change

Abstract

The aim of the presented research was the to study the everyday methods used for holidays’ construction and reproduction. The urgency of this case is closely connected to the problem of modern practices’ inconsistency, consumption society. It arouses from the hypothesis that the above-said theoretical assumptions probably cannot explain contemporary cultural change, while the holidays are constant cultural practices that can be used as the indices of change. The article describes the methods of constructing holidays and festive mood explicated in the study of actively celebrating citizens’ lifeworlds concerning the context of (post)modernity. Perception of holiday in the world of transforming and dying cultural practices consequently reaches personal and sensual basis. However, there is a lag between this perception and redefining some traditional aspects of celebrations. The holiday concept’s dualism develops into the problem of holiday’s instability as the fragment of the citizen’s lifeworld and the problem of contemporary society’s description in terms of G. Schulze’s «society of experience»