城市社会与文化研究

The Maintenance and Transformation of Tradition: The Urbanization of the Sacrificial Custom Practices at Tomb-sweeping Festival in Shanghai

  • WANG Jun-Xia
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WANG Jun-Xia

Online published: 2015-12-13

Abstract

Current study on the Tomb-sweeping Festival mainly focuses on the trajectory of the festival as well as its cultural connotation and function, and the relationship between the festival practices and its social context in a dynamical historical process has been ignored. By studying the practices at Tomb-sweeping Festival in Shanghai in the context of a modern urban society, this paper finds that the customs of Tomb-sweeping Festival in Shanghai are maintained and meanwhile transformed. What is maintained is to express longing and concerns to lost family members at a certain time and what is transformed is the practical forms. With the changes of practical forms, the Tomb-sweeping Festival, which is originally suitable to the agricultural civilization, gradually transforms to a festival suitable to the modern urban civilization. The sacrificial practices of the Tomb-sweeping Festival are gradually intermingled with the urban civilization.

Cite this article

WANG Jun-Xia . The Maintenance and Transformation of Tradition: The Urbanization of the Sacrificial Custom Practices at Tomb-sweeping Festival in Shanghai[J]. Journal of East China Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 2015 , 47(6) : 38 -46 . DOI: 10.16982/j.cnki.1000-5579.2015.06.004

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