Philippine vacation experiences

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve been here, but still, the feeling never changed. It’s still where my heart finds its second home -? the Philippines. We celebrated Christmas very religiously by attending predawn masses called Sambaing Gab; eat traditional food like rice cakes and having a good time with our family. The night mass starts at December 16 and lasts until the day of the Christmas. The church bells and first cockcrow awaken the people of the town to go to church and to pray for a joyful celebration of the Chrism’s birth.

This is indeed quite different comparing to celebrating in Italy, which is mostly about Santa Clause and giving gifts. As it continues to blow on the cold breeze of December, me and my cousins enjoyed caroling in the neighborhood. It is hoping from one house to another every night and singing Christmas songs. This serves as our bonding together and also, there is this joy that resides in Our hearts as we sing different Christmas carols. Through this, it sets our mood for some Christmas spirit. Roaming around our place, I noticed that each household were adorned with these star-shaped multistoried lanterns which they call “parole”.

They say that s early as November, these were already hanged as a preparation for Christmas. After all the preparations, Niche Buena is still the much-anticipated part after the midnight mass. It is a traditional Christmas Eve feast after returning home from the mass. It was a very special occasion for me because after a couple of years, we will celebrate the Christmas Eve as a whole family. We rarely have this moment, so I will consider this as one of my best Christmas. Truly, everybody gets busy during December but me and my family never let any moment get wasted.

We savor every chance that we get together through outings and exploring the beautiful spots in the place. More than that, I must say that the real essence of this season is the among people. It is by these moments that we are reminded that the love for each other is still the main center of the celebration. At the end of the day, these seasons are still about family closeness and my vacation in the Philippines is one great reminder that a strong bond among families is what makes each season worth-celebrating. Indeed, it was a cold yet warm vacation because of the love between and among us.

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Difference between Festival in Europe and China

Festivals are said to define who we are. These are sets of traditions that we follow in a certain community. For China and Europe, their festivals are alike in such way that they all prepare extravagantly for the event with costumes, dishes and etcetera (Richardson, 2006). These festivals also commemorate a certain person or event that is of great importance for the people in the country or community. Some festivities like the Saint Valentines’ day and Christmas day are also alike in some ways. For instance, valentines day is the time were people express their love for the people that they care about just like in Christmas.

Though Valentines Day connote lovers and couples it still gives the message of love in the same way as Christmas is the day of love and sharing(Pleck, 1999). The color red is also very popular during these festivities since it is the color of love. The atmosphere of the two festivals is the same since there is an air of love, sharing and compassion. People exchange gifts and they have an icon that represents them. For valentines it is the cupid and for Christmas it is Santa(Elevale, 2007). However they vary in time since the former is on February 14 and Christmas is on December 25.

New Year on the other hand is different from the festivals mentioned above. It is more related to other Chinese festivals since they ward off evil spirits through the use of fireworks. This festival is also not about love and sharing but of a fresh start. There are no figures or icons associated with it unlike that of Christmas and Valentines Day. Just like in the Dragon Boat Festival, the main focus is scaring away the evil in the home. The Dragon Boat festival in China is called “Duan Wu Jie” in Chinese and it is celebrated along with Mid-autumn festival and Chinese New year.

It is one of the three major festivals celebrated on the fifth lunar month of the Chinese calendar and on its fifth day which normally falls on June 5. This is also known as the double fifth day. The fifth day of the month is believed by the Chinese to be the month of the devil since this is the time were disease become rampant. The Dragon Boat festival is done to drive away these evil spirits. This festival has the longest record in history because of its relevance to the lives of its citizens. Through the festival they are reminded to take care of their health and drive away evil spirits.

This festival is highlighted by dragon boat races. Contestants ride in colorful boats with dragon designs and they row together with the rhythm of the drums. There are also special dishes that are associated with the festival. A few of these is the hsiung huan wine that adults drink to prevent evil from invading their body and to bring inner peace. Another dish is the tzung tzu which is a rice ball that was believed to e eaten by Chu Yuan before he drowned. Chu Yuan is a Poet who took his own life by jumping off the boat when he felt that there is nothing that he could do to save his country from bad luck.

He was known to be a good man y his neighbors so to prevent the fish from eating his body they threw food to the river to feed the fishes. They also right on boats with loud drums to scare the fishes. The fierce dragons are also added to the head of the boat. His neighbors rushed to the river to find his body and that is where the dragon race is said to have originated. It is said that the dragon festival is done to commemorate his death in 277 B. C. at the fifth day of the fifth lunar month (low, 2006).

Since then the festival has evolved into eating the rice dumplings instead of throwing them to the fishes and because this festival also reminded them to take care of their health, they hanged herbs at their front doors. The most significant part of the festival is done at 12 noon where they try to balance and egg and make is stand. If they can do it, they will have a lucky year. The festival in Italy on the other hand is different of that in China. The focus is on the streets and not in the river. They decorate it with lights and vendors begin to line up the streets.

The Festa della Madonna Bruna is a celebration of the people’s devotion to the brown madona (Foschino, 2002). This is where men in horses and costumes parade the streets and they guard the float of the brown madona. The brown Madona is used by knights to protect them in battles. They would paint her face on their shields and on their chariots(Lee, 2000). People try to get a piece of this paper mache ripping it into pieces. The float is then reduced into just chicken wire and a few paper since the devotees have already torn it apart.

But this act is not just an extreme form of fanaticism but is supported by their faith. This means that by destroying the old they give way to the new(Bakerjian, 2003). It is rebirth. This festival happens on the 2nd of July. The history of this festival goes as far as 1389, not as old as that in China. They also don’t have special dishes. The festival is just ended with an extravagant fireworks display at the church(Martin, 2000). These festivals reflect the values and the history of the people who celebrate it. Though some of them may seem a bit peculiar, they bear certain significance to the community.

They are celebrated with zest and joyfulness that the entire community is caught up in preparation. It is also anticipated by many. These festivals are important to the lives of the people since they have beliefs that they find necessary for their daily lives. Though these festivals have certain differences, they are intended to celebrate or commemorate the events that are important for the people and their community. It is a way of reliving the history of a community that has paved way into what the community has become. These are the events that shaped the lives of the populace either through religion or common practices.

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Festivals in India

Reference http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=4323032

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Unusual Festivals

My lecture is about unusual festivals. Could you give me some examples for unusual festival? -Yes that’s true -Don’t you have any idea? I’m sure you have seen some unusual festivals on TV but now you might forgot them. Forexample you imagin a lot of people gathering in a city throwing tomatos at each other […]

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Critical Analysis of the Modernist movement and Architecture of The Royal Festival Hall

Introduction

The following essay will discuss the modernist movement and architecture of The Royal Festival Hall in Britain. It will demonstrate several different elements of modern design combined with the fabulous music, art and drama that unified the people of Britain, post war. It will also incorporate the underlying relationship between man and building and how together they contributed to the nation building of Britain.

The Royal Festival Hall is a fine example of the technology and detailing of the period of modernism. Located in Southbank Centre the building was designed and constructed in 1951 by architects, Leslie Martin, Robert Matthew and Peter Moro to commemorate a century of the Great Exhibition and as a part of the Festival of London. The hall was built in just less than three years with the assistance of several young architects and designers who were inspired by Le Corbusier and Mies van der Roche and their fast pace sketching of modernist glass and steel pavilions. With the knowledge and skills from some of the best known architects of that time and the influence of modernity, The Royal Festival Hall was completed, “inside within an outside” into a “shape within a shape”, the exterior and the interior were no longer separate, it was one unified formation, a true monument of modernism.

The Royal Festival Hall was not only known for its modernist architecture but for its unique abstract and modern exterior. The structure of the hall consisted of five levels, the ground lower entrance level, main foyer, upper entrance level, balcony level, mid stalls level and front stalls level. All together comprising of cafe’s and bars, restaurants, shop, book store, balcony, terrace, stage, auditorium, practice room, organ, change rooms, promenade and library. The building is a classic modern structure that is simply held in by glass, a display whose immateriality is encouraged by all kind of design plans, like the way the auditorium form is lit at night-time, or by the insertion of flower boxes on both sides of the glass. Towards the inside, internal vistas transform every progress, giving a sense of graceful space and openness, an appearance of expectancy to embrace the nation.

The exterior of the original Auditorium in 1951

Miles Glendinning describes The Royal Festival Hall in a piece of her as “a little unusual in that it was the focus almost exclusively of praise even during the 1980s nadir of the reputation of the Modernism. In fact, the history of its reception is essentially one of the successive attempts to appropriate its consensual prestige. That prestige stemmed, at the most general level, not from its architecture but from its role as a ‘soft’ nationalistic symbol of post-war revival, as the centre piece of the Festival, and as ‘Britain’s first post-war non-austerity and non-essential building.” “The times predicted that ‘the hall can serve the highest spiritual purposes of music in our national life.’”

During the years of 2005 and 2007 The Royal Festival Hall underwent major renovations; however the overall style and structure of the hall remained the same. Jonathan Glancey an editor from The Guardian newspaper United Kingdom explains how although ?111 million was spent on the refurbishment of hall the initial concept of modernism will be not be altered, the building will just be restored to its original fashion keeping the ambience of the previous years of celebration, history and the culture alive in such an important British icon. Glancey quotes “Don’t come here expecting the RFH to have been transformed into some whizzy, hippity-hoppity “iconic” architectural experience for the readily bored. No. The building has been brought back to life in a way wholly recognisable to those who first came to listen to concerts here when Clement Attlee was prime minister and ration books were still in belt-tightening force. Equally, the RFH looks wonderfully fresh and new. It is one of those buildings, from an era when most British architecture was too tweedy and austere for comfort, visual or otherwise, that still seems generous, welcoming, blithe and, in part, opulent.” (Glancey, 2007)

Natasha Goodfellow a writer for Home and Antiques made a statement in her article regarding The Royal Festival Hall “The hall they built used modernism’s favourite material, reinforced concrete, alongside more luxurious elements including beautiful woods and Derbyshire fossilised limestone. It keenly espoused the tenets of modern architecture and encapsulated a sense of both democracy and an incredible openness and generosity. There were no separate bars for different classes of visitor, no bad seats in the auditorium, and the large foyers – a revelation compared to the cramped lobbies of traditional West End theatres of the time – were pierced by white columns holding the huge 3,000 seat auditorium above them.” (www.homeandantiques.com)The above statements clearly articulate how magnificent this building is, not only by its structural form.

This photo was taken from the Waterloo Bridge, post renovations in 2007

The Royal Festival Hall was built for the people of London, the bars and restaurants the hall were intended for everyone. Its contemporary design and choice of location smartly designed in a democratic space served all types of guests and offered “the broadest programme of arts and events possible”, from opera, classical music, films, dance and dramatic theatre drawing the people of Britain to attend spectacular events. During the months of May and September in 1951 over eight million people visited Southbank to attend the festival. (Mullins 2007) An open Foyer programme was launched in 1983 allowing day time access to the hall at all times during the day rather than only being open an hour prior to a concert taking place. This encouraged the public to drop in for a bite to eat or a refreshing drink at any time during the day and enjoy the ambience, views and atmosphere, The Royal Festival Hall had to offer.

The following is a statement made by Tony Blair, which appeared in the Gabion, by Hugh Pearmon, titled, The Royal Festival Hall, London: historic modernism reinvented. “If you’re British, the Royal Festival Hall is a part of your life. Everybody knows of it. If you live in or visit the capital, chances are you’ve arranged to meet friends there, in the odd and seemingly permanently-changing assortment of cafes and restaurants and bars that has inhabited it down the years. So did your parents and grandparents. You might even have made it into the period-piece auditorium for any one of an astonishing variety of performances ranging from symphony orchestras and dance groups to the world premiere of Brian Wilson’s psychedelic masterpiece Smile. And who can forget the sight of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott not-quite-dancing to Things Can Only Get Better.” (www.hughpearman.com)

Early in the piece there were several complaints regarding the acoustics from the orchestra. Publisher Victor Gollancz, an passionate concert attendee, remembers his first visit in 1951: “The place seemed horribly raw; there was no atmosphere, no smell (literally as well as metaphorically) about it…”(Mullins, 2007) Regardless of these initial problems with the acoustics many thought the Royal Festival Hall was the best concert hall in the world, hosting several truly memorable nights.As quoted by Bernard Levin in the Times 1976, “We have both aged, the Royal Festival Hall and I. But I remember, and I shall remember no matter how many more quarter centuries of the halls existence I survive, the first overwhelming shock of breathless delight and the originality and beauty of the interior….. (it felt that)… we had been instantly been reported far into the future and that we were on another planet all together… I do not exaggerate; I vividly remember talking to an attendant on a visit a week or two after my first, and being told at the end of every concert the ushers were assembled at the top of the building and that they then, linking hands, move slowly down from concourse to concourse, gently shepherding from the precincts audiences that otherwise simply could not bring themselves to leave, so affecting was the experience of being in diesen heil’gen Hallen.” (McKean, 2001)

Novelist Ali Smith recalls her memories of The Royal Festival Hall, “One of my most vivid memories of the Royal Festival Hall is of being part of a crowd nearly taking its ceiling off with the cheering and clapping – at a silent film. It was the hugely celebratory second showing of Abel Gance’s brilliant Napolean, with Sir Carl Davis conducting his own fine score. Near the end the screen splits into a triptych of different images, each tinted a different colour, to make the tricolor, the orchestra played the Marseillaise, and something strange and revolutionary swept through the London audience, which stood up and yelled with excitement at the orchestra and the screen. I have seen several of the Royal Festivals Hall’s silent film events, with Davis conducting, including a screening of Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus, which as soon as it’s on a big screen accompanied by its full score, can be seen for the masterpiece it is. Just a couple of reasons why the Royal Festival Hall is a pretty special and versatile space.” (Mullins, 2007)

Rachel Curtis explains her fond memories of The Royal Festival Hall, “My husband always admired the architecture of the Southbank especially the Royal Festival Hall. He remained interested in the renovations of Southbank centre despite living in Southampton. When we visited London we would always go to the Royal Festival Hall to relax, eat, enjoy the music and admire the magnificent landscape of London. When he was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 37 we were devastated, but he always maintained his enjoyment of architecture and music. When he died in 2004, I decided a fitting memorial would be to purchase a seat in his memory. He will now be able to hear as much music as he likes in the splendid surroundings of the Royal Festival Hall. I visit when I can and remember with fondness our special and happy times spent on the south bank.”(Mullins, 2007)

The Royal Festival Hall known not only for its unique modern architecture but for its inviting casual atmosphere, welcoming people from all ages, religions, cultures. Here the citizens of Britain could come together and find similarities and – more importantly – differences, that they could celebrate through their art forms. Adrian Forty describes The Royal Festival Hall as a mutual exchange of seeing, It is not subjugated to some other purpose of the building owner – such as (in a shopping mall) to consume, or (in a station concourse) to travel; is it different from those places where, therefore, we see others and seen by them as less complete. At the Festival Hall, as stated by Forty, “the owner of the building is none other than the subject. Whoever you are, once you enter through the original main entrance at ground level, and stand with the space unfolding in front of you, beside you and above you the volume is yours and only yours alone. Of course exactly the same experience occurs for everyone who enters the building, and so the result is the sense of an equal right to the possession of the building, and in absence of any commanding authority.” (Mullins, 2007)

It has been made evident that the construction of The Royal Festival hall has contributed to the rebuilding of the nation’s spirit, through not only its modern architecture, but the inviting atmosphere and availability of arts, music and dance it offers to the people of Britain.

Bibliography:

GLENDINNING, MILES. Teamwork or MasterworkThe Design and Reception of the Royal Festival HALL

MCKEAN, JOHN. Royal Festival Hall: London County Council, Leslie Martin and Peter Moro

London: Phaidon, 2001

MULLINS, CHARLOTTE. A Festival on the River

London: Penguin Ltd, 2007.

GLANCEY, JONOTHAN. “Pomp and Circumstance”. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2007/may/30/architecture. May 11 2011.

GOODFELLOW, NATASHA. “Royal Festival Hall: A Building to Lift the Spirits”. May 11 2011. http://www.homesandantiques.com /feature/royal-festival-hall-building-lift-spirits

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Dashain: The Festival of Nepal

Dashain Festival of Nepal INTRODUCTION Dashain is the biggest festival in Nepal. Dashain is celebrated by Nepalese people with great excitement. It is normally in the month of October but sometimes in late September. This festival is the longest and the most important of all festivals in Nepal. It falls in the best time of […]

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Cannes Film Festival and Mr. Bean

They headed into a bay full of yacht because one of the survivors owns a key of his yacht in that bay. It wasn’t easy to get in there because you cannot almost cross the roads near the mall because all zombies are around the buses. They have lost a lot of people. They were […]

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