Selected Paper/ Paper Seleccionado
Festive feast in Sardinia: tradition and modernity
Abstract (English)
A holiday is one of the forms of life of every ethnocultural community, since ancient times, organically occupying a huge place in the system of its traditional socio-cultural values; in its classical hypostasis, a holiday is a kind of 'sacred' time, opposed to the 'profane' time of everyday life, one of the main elements of which is food. The festive meal is meant to emphasise this opposition to everyday time, with unusual dishes and abundance of food, thus becoming a redemptive sacrifice to ensure food security in the past. However, even in modern realities, a festive meal somewhat departs from its primary purpose of satiety and satisfying hunger, bringing to the forefront other aspects that are not so important in everyday life. In particular, we are talking about the sacred meaning of festive food and meals, its special ritual meaning, lost or still actively existing in the minds of people. The first category includes various festive dishes that have lost their apotropaic or votive meaning and exist solely as a tradition or custom; the second category includes, in particular, protective or votive breads that are specially blessed, given to the sick, kept to protect oneself and loved ones, or with which one thanks patron saints for help. In addition, festive food, which mainly belongs to the second category (but does not exclude the first), is characterized by a special way of preparation that is not typical for everyday life. This concerns both the involvement of a larger number of people and the traditions associated with cooking. The vitality of many traditions invariably raises the question of their transformation: changes in festive recipes and products caused by fashion and globalization, food habits, methods of cooking and eating, as well as borrowing recipes and individual ingredients from other cultures.Keywords (Ingles)
Festive cuisine, Sardinian traditional food, Sardinia's festive specialitiespresenters
Aleksandra Zhuravleva
Nationality: Russian Federation
Residence: Russian Federation
Institute of ethnology and anthropology Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow, Russia
Presence:Online