Fallas Festival is one of the most unique festivals celebrated in Spain. Happening from March 14 to 19 in Valencia, the city is filled with tall colorful statues called ninots, people dancing on the streets to the beat of the drum, traditional foods and a lot of fun! It is a celebration of the end of winter and the start of spring. These impressive ninots are made over many months and will be set on fire in a annual ceremony called La Cremá at the end of the four days. It’s a beautiful way to greet the new season with some heat!
It is very important to know how burning beautiful statues started. Though the origins of the Las Fallas de Valencia are uncertain, the most well-known opinion dates back to centuries ago. In celebration of the coming of spring, carpenters (木匠) would burn traditional lamps used to light up workshops in the darkness of winter that were no longer needed. These lamps were called “parots”. The creative Valencian craftsmen would also dress up their parots as customers that have given them trouble in the past, and later on, it became a tradition to find the most inventive parot. As the years went by, people became more creative and the annual tradition lives on to this day.
Nowadays, Valencia celebrates this festival mainly in 4 days. The streets are filled with extremely great energy — with larger-than-life figures parading the city and people dancing on the streets to the sound of music. During these days there are special events called The Mascleta, Nit de Foc, La Planta, and La Cema. To enjoy the full experience of Las Fallas, we strongly recommend attending all of these events.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________One of the most frequently repeated issues in protecting cultural heritage is the difficult relationship between the interests of the individual and the community.
Ancient Romans established that a work of art could be considered part of the possessions of the whole community, even if privately owned. For example, sculptures decorating the façade of a private building were recognized as having a common value and couldn’t be removed, since they stood in a public site, where they could be seen by all citizens.
The statesman and general Agrippa placed the Apoxyomenos, a masterpiece by the very famous Greek sculptor Lysippos, in front of his bathroom. Emperor Tiberius deeply admired the sculpture and ordered it be removed from the public view and placed in his private palace. The Roman people rose up and forced him to return the Apoxyomenos to its previous location, where everyone could admire it!
The term “cultural heritage” typically raises the idea of a single society and the communication between its members. But cultural boundaries are not necessarily well-defined. Artists, writers, scientists, craftsmen and musicians learn from each other, even if they belong to different cultures, far removed in space or time. Just think about the influence of Japanese prints on Paul Gauguin’s paintings; or of African masks on Pablo Picasso’s works.
Let’s take another example, that of the Mona Lisa painted in the early sixteenth century by Leonardo da Vinci. From a modern point of view, whose national heritage does the Mona Lisa belong to?
Leonardo was a very famous Italian painter, that’s why the Mona Lisa is obviously part of the Italian cultural heritage. When Leonardo went to France, to work at King Francis I’s court, he probably brought the Mona Lisa with him. It seems that in 1518 King Francis I acquired the Mona Lisa, which therefore ended up in the royal collections: that’s why it is obviously part of the French national heritage, too. This painting belongs to the cultural heritage of all mankind.
Cultural heritage passed down to us from our parents must be preserved for the benefit of all. In an era of globalization, cultural heritage helps us to remember our cultural diversity, and its understanding develops mutual respect and renewed dialogue amongst different cultures.
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We often hear about the importance of cultural heritage. But what is cultural heritage and why is it important?
First of all, let’s have a look at the meaning of the words. “Heritage” is a property, something that is inherited, passed down from previous generations. In the case of “cultural heritage,” the heritage doesn’t consist of money or property, but of culture, values and traditions. Cultural heritage implies a shared bond, our belonging to a community. It represents our history and our identity; our bond to the past, to our present, and the future.
Cultural heritage often brings to mind artifacts (paintings, drawings, prints, mosaics, sculptures), historical monuments and buildings, as well as archaeological sites. But the concept of cultural heritage is even wider than that, and has gradually grown to include all evidence of human creativity and expression: photographs, documents, books and manuscripts, and instruments, etc. either as individual objects or as collections. Today, towns, underwater heritage, and the natural environment are also considered part of cultural heritage since communities identify themselves with the natural landscape.
Moreover, cultural heritage is not only limited to material objects that we can see and touch. It also consists of immaterial elements: traditions, oral history, performing arts, social practices, traditional craftsmanship, representations, rituals, knowledge and skills transmitted from generation to generation within a community.
But cultural heritage is not just a set of cultural objects or traditions from the past. It is also the result of a selection process: a process of memory and forgetfulness that characterizes every human society constantly engaged in choosing — for both cultural and political reasons — what is worthy of being preserved for future generations and what is not.
All peoples make their contribution to the culture of the world. That’s why it’s important to respect and safeguard all cultural heritage, through national laws and international treaties. Illicit trafficking of artifacts and cultural objects, pillaging of archaeological sites, and destruction of historical buildings and monuments cause irreparable damage to the cultural heritage of a country. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), founded in 1946, has adopted international conventions on the protection of cultural heritage, to foster intercultural understanding while stressing the importance of international cooperation.
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The Changing Spring Festival
The Spring Festival, as it is celebrated today, has undergone many changes, the country’s economic development and globalization.
No Spring Festival is complete without food. People could not get good food with desired in earlier times, something that does not apply to society today. The best time celebrate was when food was available in plenty, and that was possible in spring, or the beginning of the Lunar New Year. That was the main reason why the Spring Festival acquired such great importance among Chinese people. But three decades of economic growth has ensured that people in China can enjoy a good meal whenever they want. People seem not to long for delicious food like before during the Spring Festival due to the change in people’s fortune.
In the past, celebrations were limited to events like song-and-dance duets(二人转)in North China, dragon and lion dances in South China and fireworks. And economic development and urbanization seems to have ensured various forms of entertainment and communication. People can watch the Spring Festival Gala on TV or even on the cellphone.
Many customs associated with the Spring Festival have changed, too. In the past, people used to visit relatives and friends with gifts and lots of good wishes. Today, many people, especially the youth, use their cell phones or the Internet to send their good wishes and even “gifts” to their relatives and friends. Some may say this is a sign that people have become less caring about their near and dear ones, but we can see this development as a time-and energy-saving exercise granted by the information age.
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Long Journey
The majority of the world’s clothes, bags and shoes are manufactured in Asia. But the region’s brands have made little headway in the West. Of the ten most valuable global apparel (服装) labels ranked by Millward Brown, a market-research firm, only Uniqlo is Asian. Li-Ning, one of China’s best-selling sportswear brands, tried to enter America in 2010. It opened a flagship store in Portland, Oregon and later launched an English-language online store. Both failed.
What makes the journey so hard? Adjusting to Western tastes takes time. Although Uniqlo became the largest Japanese apparel brand by selling US-style clothing, it still encountered cultural barriers in America itself. For example, vests (背心) are one of Uniqlo’s most popular products at home, but relatively few Americans and Europeans wear an additional layer beneath their shirts, says Dairo Murata, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase, a bank. It was only two years ago the firm also realized that XL was not big enough in America; it now duly provides XXXL.
Another problem, at least outside the big cities, is price. Uniqlo takes pride in the use of high-tech, comfortable fabrics (布料)，an attempt to differentiate itself from other basic clothing brands like Gap and Old Navy. But at Danbury Fair, a Connecticut shopping mall that is a barometer for retail trends in the suburbs, people prefer Primark, a super-cheap Irish retailer (零售商) which recently opened, to Uniqlo, which shut up shop in June. Mall visitors are conservative about fashion and about spending, explains F.K. Grunert, its manager.
What still seems to work better is concentrating on urban centres, even though that means a smaller potential market. This month Uniqlo opened a stand-alone store in Manhattan’s Soho; such shops tend to do well. In 2002 it had 21 stores in Britain, dotted around the north-west, Midlands and south-east; now eight of the ten it still has are in London.
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New look on the Museum
Museums have changed. They are no longer places for the privileged few or for bored vacationers to visit on rainy days.
At a science museum in Ontario, Canada you can feel your hair stand on end as harmless electricity passes through your body. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, you can look at 17 century instruments while listening to their music. At the Modern Museum in Sweden, you can put on costumes provided by the Stockholm Opera. As these examples show, museums are reaching out to new audiences, particularly the young, the poor and the less educated members of the population. As a result, attendance is interesting.
Many museums have changed in appearance. Some old, gray museums have been rebuilt, and the newer ones are open and modern in their architecture. Inside, there is modern lighting, color, and sound. Instead of displaying everything they own, museum directors show fewer objects and leave open spaces where visitor can gather and sit down. They also bring together in one display a group of objects drawn drawn from various parts of the museum to represent the whole lifestyle of region or a historical period. In one room, for instance, you may find materials, clothing, tools, cooking pots, furniture, and art works of a particular place and time.
More and more museum directors are realizing that people learn best when they can somehow become part of what they are seeing. In many science museums, for example, there are no guided tours. The visitor is encouraged to touch, listen, operate, and experiment so as to discover scientific principles for himself. The purpose is not only to provide fun but also to help people feel at home in the world of science. The theory is that people who do not understand science will probably fear it, and those who fear science will not use it to the best advantage.
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There's more of a connection between food and culture than you may think.
On an individual level, we grow up eating the food of our cultures. Many associate foods from our childhood with warm feelings and fond memories, tying us to our families.On a large scale, food operates as an expression of cultural identity, Traditional cuisine (烹饪法) is passed down from one generation to the next. Immigrants bring the food of their countries where they go, and cooking traditional food is a symbol of pride for their ethnicity (民族特色) as well as a means of coping with homesickness.
Many immigrants open their own restaurants and serve traditional dishes. However, the food does not remain exactly the same. Some ingredients needed to make traditional dishes may not be readily available, so the taste and flavour can be different from what they would prepare in their home countries. Additionally, immigrants who sell dishes have to alter the original dishes to satisfy a wider range of customers. Alterations to original dishes can create new flavors that still preserve the cultural significance of the dish.
What stays the same is the extent to which each country or community's unique cuisine reflects its unique history, lifestyle, values, and beliefs. For example, in China, harmony is a vital characteristic in almost every aspect of life. This is reflected in Chinese cuisine, where almost every flavour is used in a balanced way. Throughout history, Chinese people are of the belief that food not only needs to be nutritious but also needs to look appealing, so they put a lot of effort into decorating the dishes，with vibrant red as their traditional colour.
As the world becomes more globalized, it is easier to access cuisines from different cultures. We should not only accept our traditions through our culture's food but also become more informed about other cultures by trying their foods. It is important to remember that each dish has a special place in the culture to which it belongs, and is special to those who prepare it. Food is a window to culture, and it should be treated as such.
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