DECEMBI

15 Frene!

encounters

We invite readers to

send us photographs to
be considered for

publication in this feature. Your photo

should show a painting,

a sculpture, piece of

architecture or any
other subject which

seems to be an example
of cross-fertilization
between cultures.

Alternatively, you could

send us pictures of two
works from different

cultural backgrounds in which you see some

striking connection or
resemblance. Please add

a short caption to all

photographs.

Idole gardienne de
la rminiscence
1986, oil on canvas

(53 x 94 cm)

by Irne Dacunha
"My paintings are not nostalgic evocations of

faraway things," says the

Swiss artist Irne

Dacunha, "but the trace

of my relationship with my own environment, a pragmatic society which is losing its spirituality."
Her work, which draws

inspiration from a variety

of artistic traditions,

attempts to restore to the

humdrum modern world

a sense of myth and

mystery.

CONTENTS
DECEMBER 1989

4
Interview with

NAJIB MAHFOUZ
...true artists can accept
outside influences which

help them to achieve self-expression...

9
Today there are no more
unexplored continents,

w3.
" 47
PORTRAIT
17 FATHER DAMIEN,
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD

unknown seas or mysterious

islands. But while we can

HIGH DAYS

AND HOLIDAYS

overcome the physical barriers to exploration, the

barriers of mutual ignorance

between different peoples and cultures have in many
cases still not been dismantled.

THE FESTIVE SPIRIT

by Jean Duvignaud

A modern Ulysses can

voyage to the ends of the
earth. But a different kind

MOCK LION AND REAL HEROES

by Mamadou Seek

of Odyssey now beckonsan

exploration of the world's
SKELETONS AT THE FEAST

many cultural landscapes, the

ways of life of its different peoples and their outlook on

by Javier Prez Siller

19

48
LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR

the world in which they live. It is such an Odyssey that

the Unesco Courier proposes
to you, its readers. Each
month contributors of

THE PAVILION OF THE SECOND MOON

by Laurence Caillet

24

different nationalities provide

from different cultural and

FAREWELL TO WINTER

by Hlne Yvert-Jalu

32

professional standpoints an
authoritative treatment of a

theme of universal interest.

SAMBA TIME!

The compass guiding this journey through the world's cultural landscapes is respect for the dignity of man
everywhere.

by Sergio Alves Teixeira

38

Cover:

The Rio de Janeiro Carnival

(Brazil).
Back cover:

LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FESTIVITY! by Laurence Coudart

A carnival musician, Bale

42

(Switzerland).

INTERVIEW

with

Najib Mahfouz
In the course ofits long history, Egypt has faced many chal lenges stemming from its encounters with other culturesGreek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, and Turkish. Since Bona

Najib Mahfouz, of Egypt, is widely

considered to be the greatest living

writer in Arabic. Born in Cairo

parte's expedition and especially since the British occupa

tion, Egypt has been at grips with the modern Western world. This latest influence seems to be more profound and significant than all those that preceded it. How has the Egyptian identity emergedfrom this encounter? Has it been weakened, strengthened, or transformed?
cultural encounter with the West was not a new

in 1912, he was awarded

the Nobel Prize for Literature

in 1988 for his lifetime's output

of novels, short stories and plays.

Here he reflects on the Egyptian

cultural identity and more generally

on the impact on creative artists of influences from outside
their own culture.

experience for Egypt nor for the Arab world. As you have rightly pointed out, before the flowering of Islamic culture, Egypt had been exposed to far-reaching influences from the
cultures of India, Persia, Greece and the Mediterranean

seaboard, not to mention that of ancient Egypt. All these encounters with other worlds were rewarding and enriched our traditional identity and classical culture. They added vigour to our living organism rather than impoverishing it or inhibiting its development.
There has been a fresh encounter with the West over

the past two centuries. In some respects this contact has been negative. But if we look carefully at the results as a whole,
the positive features can be said to have outshone the rest.

Look what happened with literature. Western ideas and

writings were imported and we accepted them. Thanks to

them, we have created new and specifically Egyptian forms of the novel, the short story and the essay. Naturally, our narrative style has its origins deep in the Arab past, but we can say that its roots have been renewed and given a fresh lease of life by the currents of thought emanating from Europe. Those currents have become so integrated into our environment and culture that they can no longer be distin
guished from them. They have become so acclimatized that
they appear to have been here for ever.

...true artists can accept outside influences

which help them to achieve self-expression...

life

;Jk

VT-**,..
*>

Many developing countries have close contacts with Western civilization. Because ofthis proximity some intellectuals in these countries adopt attitudes that are even more

The characters in your writing seem to be moved by a passion which tirelessly follows them through the old quarters of Cairo. You invest them with a tremendous love

European than those of the Europeans themselves. So they produce works which are mere imitations ofEuropean models. Are Egyptian intellectuals susceptible to such temptations? have passed through a number of stages in this respect, the first of which was the translation of European works into our language. The second stage was the adaptation of those works and their integration into our environment, in other words the "Egyptianization" of an alien cultural product. The third stage is that of maturity, when a writer's own personality attains its full self-expression.

of life, yet at the same time they possess great serenity, Through them, wefeel that you are perfectly at peace with yourself and, moreover, overcome with gratitude... true. I have always given thanks for the almost sacred privilege I have been granted of being able to "identify" the human beings of this city which I know and love so well. Once those lives which go on around me enter my field of vision, they become characters, in other words they become creatures of my own flesh and blood. My gratitude becomes a creative act.

We have been strongly influenced by Europe, as you say, and there have been imitators. But imitation is not art, nor is it a sign of cultural maturity. To my mind, true artists can accept outside influences which can be assimilted in order to better express the truth that they bear within themselves. I suppose something similar to this occurred in both North and South America, for example. At the outset, the old world may perhaps have been imitated, but later a specific literature was created which has in its turn influenced European writers. In short, following a cultural
shock, external models may be copied at first, but it is

Your novel Midaq Alley* is bathed in a religious atmosphere. Is this a reflection of your personal universe or one aspect of the reality that inspires you? "atmosphere" features in several of my works, but it is not a literary device nor a denominational choice: it is part of the reality I am describing and which is most often set in the old quarters of Cairo. An artist, to my mind, has to depict that reality without distorting it. Without going in for fanaticism or ideological commitment and without speaking out in favour of one belief or another,

important to go beyond this stage and find richer outlets for the expression of one's creativity.

Let us look at a cultural movement which followed a different path. A number ofwriters in Arabic emerged in the Americas early this century. They formed part of the wave of immigration to the New World that took place from 1910, and they were known as the Mahjar (emigration or exodus) writers. Did this emerging Arab literary movement have any influence in its turn on the Arab world? It had a considerable influence! It contributed to the renewal of Arabic language and literature. I followed with admiration the progress of the Mahjar writers, especially the poets, and they left a profound impression on me. The fact that they were writing far from our own land did not diminish the great attraction they had for us. Their literature, born on another continent, has a very special flavour and resonance that we greatly appreciate in the Arab world,
Their works reflect the milieu in which they lived, they are

In view of the current growth of technology and the destructive purposes for which it is sometimes used, and ofthe threat to nature all over the planet, what values are left? Do you think that religion can offer a response to these challenges and limit the risks of dehumanization? -The progress made by science and technology has not always been negative. It has been of immense service to mankind. Of course there are some destructive aspects, but I think that this process of dehumanization can be fought with the aid of two great forces: religion and art. Through these forces it is possible to turn scientific progress to human advantage. But I insist on the fact that there is no need

to be afraid of scientific progress; science and technology are capable of correcting their own mistakes. One example can be seen in current efforts to produce non-pollutant energy. Progress cannot be stopped, but we must not surrender to panic. I am optimistic that science, guided by a sense of awareness, can constantly adjust its trajectory. Art and religion are there to lighten the way.

permeated by the landscapes and societies of the New World.

To a great extent, they are at heart "American" writers.

interview by the Argentine writer and philosopher victor

Massuh, a former Chairman of Unesco's Executive Board. * English translations of the works of Najib Mahfouz include Midaq Alley
(Heinemann Educational Books, London, 1976) and Respected Sir

Through them, the Americas acquired a certain presence in my OWn WOrk and, generally Speaking, marked the recent
i i i r 1 if 1 n -n

cultural renewal ol the Middle hastern countries.

(Quartet Books, London, i986).

reasons

for offering

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osco

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EDITORIAL

LL societies, past and present, seem to have had their feasts and festivals,
their high days and holidays when people could abandon themselves to the spirit of the occasion and momentarily forget the trials and tribulations of their daily

lives. Today however it is often said that some spark, some element of mystery
that enlivened the festivals known to our ancestors seems to be dying out.

The world's festivals form a variegated tapestry in which many different threads

are woven: ritual and spontaneity, tradition and licence, the sacred and the

profane, rich and poor, individual solitude and collective warmth. They have always been occasions when differences could be reconciled, if only temporarily.
At once chaotic and planned, they were times when the usual rhythms were

periodically disrupted and the group rediscovered the secret of the origiAof
the world. The need for order triumphed over disorder.

It is understandable that feasts and festivals should perform such functions in

rural societies with a strong sense of community spirit, societies where life is

punctuated by the unchanging cycle of the seasons and human lawsreem

implacably to reproduce a cosmic design. But how do they fit into life in modern
cities where the individual is a lone face in an anonymous crowd, discovers that
there is a difference between the laws of nature and the laws of society, and has

to assume responsibility for his ovv^fciestiny and that of his communfl^?

While the religious meaning of many traditional festivities is fading, functions
with mass appeal such as popular music festivals and sporting events are

proliferating, and private conviviality seems to be as widespread as ever.

Festive occasions thus respond to a need which is universal but not easy to define.

Do they perform the same function in the modern world as they did in traditional
c , societies? What values are celebrated today by the colourful events which, as
flfc owirling aggfers at tm

Rio camWal, 1989.

the following pages show, are still going strong?

'

a/
-

Feasts and festivals as a cornerstone of community life

The festive spirit

BY JEAN DUVIGNAUD

V HAT is the significance of feasts and fes

tivals? Are they celebrations hallowed by custom,
or curious pieces of folklore? Only after the
meeting and confrontation of different cultures

The meaning of feasts and festivals may ac

tually be as problematic to those who take part
in their rituals as to outside observers. But rather

than attempting to find a common denominator

between such manifestations, let us try to draw

was it possible to grasp the originality and authen

ticity of each. Likewise, it was historians, ethnol ogists and psychologists studying other countries
than their own who saw that festivals are acts of

up a brief catalogue of them.

Some festivals consecrate a milestone in life-

birth, initiation, marriage, burial. Such events are

collective acts whereby a society responds to the
insurmountable constraints of naturesex,
deathand tries to deliver men and women from
their individual fears.

self-expression, manifestations of a dynamism

taLKS

constantly renewed, and even in some cases the

reflection of Utopian yearnings.

The French sociologist Emile Durkheim, writing at the beginning of the century, saw feasts

Thus community participation in sexual

and festivals as an "effervescence" the intensity

union through the marriage feast follows a pat

tern which varies little in different parts of the
world. In marriage ceremonies at Douz in

of which cements the solidarity of a group or a

people, a representation of the invisible relation

ships between man and the laws of nature, a

veritable institution whereby the bonds between the members of a society are maintained, regener

southern Tunisia, for example, families camp on

the side of a dune during the night. The

bridegrooms wait in a tent for their future wives to arrive, riding on dromedaries accompanied by a singing and dancing throng. On their arrival,
the whole group springs to life, seized by an ir

ated and reproduced.

Writing around the same time, but in a to

tally different context, Sir James Frazer, the author of The Golden Bough, saw feasts and fes
tivals as acts which reproduce the great systems of beliefs and mythologies. From these major

resistible impulse to take part. In Nepal, this time

in broad daylight, the community is also present at the bride's preparations for marriage, and

celebrations emerged religion, magic and politics.

Similar statements are found in the work of other

responds with the same magical fervour. Euro

pean and American marriage celebrations still

anthropologists such as Boas (on the Eskimos), Frobenius and Griaule (on the Africans), and
Malinowski (on the Melanesians).

perform a similar function, in highly schematic

form, although the participants may not even
realize it.

The expression "rite of passage" is an inade

A bonfire to celebrate the feast of St. John in the

Marne dpartement of France.

quate description of such events. In Casamance, for example, south of the Sahara, the passage of
11

a corpse on a stretcher adorned with the horns of an ox generates an excitement which provides the living with a way of socializing death.
Brazilian children in a suburb of Salvador laugh
and sing as they follow the coffin of one of their
friends. In Mexico, the Feast of the Dead trans

forms the macabre apparatus of funerals into farce, as if seeking to abolish the anguish caused
by the inevitability of death.

Another type of festival, which could be

described as "restorative", spectacularly revives
the memory of a vanished past or culture. One example is the Bolivian Diablada at which Indian

miners and craftsmen dress up as figures from the

ancient Inca empire and confront a triumphant

St. George in a symbolic struggle. Another is the
Roco, the curious Andalusian festival of the

Virgin of the Marshes, in which Arab, Christian and Gypsy allegories overlap. A celebration on
the beach at Yemanja in northeastern Brazil is

a mirage in mime and dance of a distant Africa

of which the sea is the location and the symbol.

The participant sects abandon themselves to

dancing and trance before leaping into the water

which formed them.

Festivals based on ritual are of a different

order. Their repetition of a liturgy gives them a

dramatic dimension and aesthetic grandeur. In

donesia's wayang shadow puppet drama, which so fascinated Antonin Artaud, belongs to this
category, as does India's Kathakali dance drama,

International Labour Day on 1 May are organized

to provide a seal of political legitimacy.

1 he "Gangaur" spring
festival in honour of Gauri, goddess of Abundance, in Rajasthan (India).
KJpposite page, (above)
Samoan dancers, (below)

mass bathing in the sacred river Ganges, and,

more generally, all the celebrations which Budd hism has inspired in Asia. European history con
tains a number of accounts of the manifestations

Even a brief catalogue of festivities would be

incomplete without an evocation of private con

viviality. Many kinds of small-scale celebrations
are held purely for the sake of entertainment,

of Roman Catholic mysticism in Italy and Spain. Something of their spirit has survived in the great
festival held on the cathedral forecourt at Guada

shared enjoyment or for the simple satisfaction

of being together. Communal meals, the agape ("love feasts") of the ancient Greeks, banquets
in town and country, brotherhoods, initiatory
groups, gatherings for dancing and music, inti
mate or Utopian celebrationsminiature festivals
of this kind are found in all civilizations and are

shamanistic festival in the Himalayan monastery of

Matho, Ladakh.

lupe, near Mexico City, when Indians and mes

tizos reconstitute for a day the union once

concluded between the Virgin and one of their

number, a slave.

Urban festivals such as the processions of an cient Athens, Chinese imperial ceremonies, "royal entries" into European cities of the Renais sance, the wedding of the doge of Venice and the
sea, and the Lord Mayor's Show in London have tended to be more highly orchestrated. Traces of such traditions survive today in the Palio of Siena
and the carnivals of Venice, Bale, Munich and
Flanders.

flourishing thanks to video and other modern

facilities.

The participants in these often deeply felt

common experiences accept no other ritual than that which they have chosen themselves. Such oc

casions, on which community feeling is expressed even more intensely than in larger-scale events,

JEAN DUVIGNAUD,
of France, teaches at the

University of Paris VII,

where he is director of the

are deeply woven into the fabric of regional or

national life.

laboratory of the sociology of knowledge and the

imagination. He is the
author of several works on

Other, more serious urban festivals are the

A claim on existence
The form and meaning of all these festivals vary
between different cultures and religions and are influenced by fashion and technology, but each
one, whatever its scale, is the vehicle of a tran

anniversary celebrations organized by all rgimes and all nations to commemorate symbolically the pact or contract made between a people and a
founder, or the event which led to the formation of the state. Festivities with a didactic intent, such
12

feasts and festivals, notably

Le Don du rien. Essai

d'anthropologie de la fte ("The Gift of Nothingness.

Essay on the Anthropology

of the Festival"; Paris, 1977)

and Ftes et Civilisations

("Festivals and

as France's National Festival on 14 July and

scendent power to anticipate or to create.

Civilizations"; Paris, 1984).

we) ^:>'s
_. -- - *

When the Indians of the North American

plains draw the great circle of the world and the

Sun, their action cannot be seen as a mere thea

trical representation of magical or religious

beliefs. Those who take part in this ritual are

absorbed in an operation of far wider scope, one

that unites their bodies, the cosmos, a common

perception of life, almost a lust for life. This is

metaphysics in action. So-called "tradition" or

"authenticity" is not at all a passive state but a

claim made on existence.

The Africans deported to the "New World"

as slaves revived Yoruba rites in northeastern

Brazil. The drumbeats and frenzied gestures of

the Candombl and the Macumba conjure up

a trance which brings back the lost homeland.

However repressed these rites were in the past,
however distorted they may appear in some

places, they helped the slaves to maintain their

human estate in the face of servitude and poverty.

The French ethnologist Roger Caillois wrote of the "hurly burly" which turns established hie
rarchies upside down at festival-time. Georges
Bataille believed that feasts have a force which

leads to the transgression of established rules. In this respect the Paris Commune of 1871 was a
festival, and so was May 1968 in Paris. These

events called in question everyday customs, and

called for a "new deal" in man's relations with man.

Of course these were ephemeral moments,

but their turmoil was a breeding ground for new

attitudes and new desires. Without feasts and fes

ANTICLOCKWISE

global village which has made us all contem

FROM LEFT:

poraries seems to encourage the invention of new

tivals, would not the human species be reduced

to the state of the beehive or the ant-hill?

1 he Venice carnival

forms. Who would complain if the festival were

to become an art form? The threat which has caused festivals to dis

1 raditional Inca feast

to mark the summer

Decadence or renewal?
What has become of all these festivals in McLu-

solstice at Cuzco, Peru. Jtiehind the scenes at

appear from industrial societies has come about through the development of what Lewis Mumford called megalopolis, of urban and suburban agglomerations which are not communities but

a performance of wayang,

han's global village? What is the outcome of the

confrontations between these celebrations which

the Javanese shadow

puppet drama.

vast, amorphous concentrations of people. In the

last hundred years or so, what continent has es caped this proliferating centralism?
Where then can festivals be celebrated

were hitherto separated by history, politics, cul

ture or distance? Is it true, as some regretfully be

A funeral rite in
Casamance, Senegal.

lieve, that a process of "planetary banalization" is underway? Is the audience ruining the show?
For a festival is a show. It needs a public. I am not thinking here of the pitiful and more or

\jypsy pilgrimage to the shrine of the "Virgin of the

Marshes" in Andalusia,

without provoking hostility or indignation?

Proliferating slums, streets and squares jammed

Spain.

less faked scenarios rigged up for tourist consump

tion. I am thinking of those who are not con

with traffic, people living packed together in tow

er blocks, alienation within big organizations which discourages day-to-day contactall these

sumers of folklore, of the innocent eye of the

African watching an Indian festival on television or the response of an Amerindian villager who

factors are hostile to the festive spirit.

Religion, ideology and sport attract crowds

to events which sometimes assume the allure of festivities. But such mass celebrations are short

sees a European carnival for the first time.

Such spectators will feel encouraged, invited

to join in themselves, to accept if they have the
chance, the festive delirium of the Brazilian
"Bumba meu boi" or the collective excitement

lived. The hypermarkets of the megacities are also

skilled at exploiting the tawdry aspects of the

of an evening around a marabout shrine in

Morocco. The Aborigines of Australia have made

the choice to present themselves through the me dia to foreign audiences. They have shown the
same desire for recognition as the people of an

Italian village in the Val de Lunigiana who once

came to Paris to stage a single performance of a
local festival.

Does the televising of festivals and their

production before foreign audiences indicate that

they are in decline? This is the belief of purists

who would like to stop the clock and confine fes
tive elation to a scenario that never changes, or,

more cunningly perhaps, turn it into a piece of

marketable folklore. And yet, contrariwise, the festive spirit to lull their customers into spending
freely a travesty of joyful and sumptuary con
sumption.

Will the story of feasts and festivals end in

these distortions of the festive spirit? Does what

the architect Paul Virilio has called the "censoring city" present the ultimate barrier to that intense

communion, to that frenzied awakening of

awareness of others, to that perception of the world and the future through which, as the French sociologist Marcel Mauss said, "the social body is truly realized"?

Surely not. Feasts and festivals, with all their

unexpected, transient, gratuitous and spontane ous aspects are a motor of community life. From

them man draws on the exquisite pleasure of what

Andr Breton called the "limitless infinite". 15

Mock lion
from Senegal, a ligbthearted traditional

game with serious undertones

16

and real heroes

BY MAMADOU SECK

I N Africa collective celebrations have

always

been held to strengthen community spirit and

group solidarity, as well as to break the monotony of everyday life. Most of these popular festivals have a significance which goes back to very early times. Some festivals, like Senegal's bao-naan, a ritual dance calling for rain in drought-stricken times, pay tribute to a divinity and appeal for his good
offices. Others celebrate the birth of a child, an

abundant harvest or some other happy event. Festive occasions such as light-hearted wrestling matches between champions from different

villages simply offer an opportunity for displays of strength and agility. But all the festivals up hold threatened values such as generosity, a sense of honour and dignity, and courage in the face of adversity, and although during them things
sometimes seem to take a violent turn, univer

sally accepted rules are always respected. All these features are combined in the game of the mock lion, known in Senegal as Simb. I saw this game when I was young, and my memory of it is still undimmed.
The whole district was in festive mood. A

dense and colourfully dressed crowd jostled around the platform of honour on which the notables had taken their places. The oldest people had brought makeshift seats since they could not stand up for long. Each spectator flourished on his forearm a piece of cotton thread studded with
knots died red with cola. This thread, which was

sold by teenage volunteers, was the entrance ticket to the show and afforded protection against the lion's fury. Woe betide those who had no piece of thread! All around tom-toms were beating time while women danced. The nearby streets pulsated with activity. Vendors of water, soft drinks and coco nuts pushed their way through the crowd. On
each side of the main street, lines of headscarves
and loincloths fluttered in the wind. Beneath

them were teenage girls wearing their finest boubus, and decked out with jewels sparkling in
the sun. No one was allowed to cross these lines

without paying a kind of forfeit, the lo-lamb.1 The smallest coin conferred the right to put one's hand on the intimate parts of the women who were taking the money. No one took offence. That was how it had always been.

The Game of Simb (1989),

by the Senegalese artist Ousseynou Sarr.
17

Six o'clock in the evening. Suddenly there was an indescribable commotion, punctuated

with wild applause. Preceded by an imposing

escort, the mock lion entered the arena. He was

and advanced rapidly towards the platform of honour, sowing panic among the tiny tots hiding beneath their parents' clothes. He went up to a special guest, who wondered for an instant whe
ther this could really be happening to him, and discreetly pulled a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe away a bead of sweat. Everyone was shouting. The man-animal fixed his eyes on ano ther guest, whose lips began to tremblethe poor man had no cotton thread. An irresistible oppor tunity! The "wild animal" leapt on the guilty spectator like an eagle on its prey, pinned him

unrecognizable as a man. He wore a wig with a

mane attached to it. His face was covered with

black soot, his eyes adorned with ochre powder. Everything about him gave the impression of a wild beast, of the king of the forest, symbol of strength and courage. From time to time he opened his mouth wide and slobbered a whitish liquid. Then he began to roar, looking nastily at the crowd. His legs were ringed with jangling amulets and knickknacks. He was a fearful sight. Feigning panic, a lion-tamer hurled himself before the "lion", brandished a long piece of cotton thread and loudly recited an incantatory prayer: "Daar Nd Gande Ndiaye. Daru mala Yala la dar. Ku Yala dar nga daru."2 Seemingly hypnotized by these words, the beast crouched down and pretended to sleep. During this brief moment of respite, the crowd applauded raptu rously, not forgetting in their excitement to bran dish their protective threads to extinguish the
man-animal's murderous intentions.

to the ground with a smart blow from a paw, and then let fly with his fists. By the time the tamer had managed to cool the lion's ardour by utte ring incantatory prayers which were drowned in the general hullaballoo, the poor victim was lying on the ground, his face covered with blood. He was taken away after someone had lent him a cot
ton thread. The festival went on at full tilt until
sunset.

That night everyone had something to talk

about. The mock lion was a hero. He had dis

This was the moment when a group of barechested youths rashly pulled the piece of cloth
which served as the mock lion's tail. Some threw

stones at him or chewed and snapped old bones. In unison the spectators sang out the ritual war ning cry: "Det! Way det! Gande bagne na Kuy dam yax."3 Then the lion roared louder than ever and set off in hot pursuit of those who had provoked him. There was pandemonium as the animal engaged in a flurry of biting and boubouripping. He knocked one spectator down. The tamer ran along behind, reciting prayers to get the victims out of their predicament. What mad
ness! What a release!

played energy and perseverance in pursuing and punishing those who had disobeyed the law of the community. The teenagers who had shown their mettle by provoking the wild beast and then standing up to him were heroes too. Their appe tites for excitement satisfied, people went to sleep thinking of the children of the forest, past and present, who had stood their ground before the king of animals. In an afternoon of festivity, man had rediscovered his pride.
1. A Wolof word meaning: "How much do you touch with?"
or more precisely: "How much do you give to have the right
to touch?"

2. "It is not I who tame you, but Allah. When He tames you, you must obey." (Wolof)

3. From the Wolof: "No, no, the lion hates it when people
break a bone!".

Suddenly the mock lion changed direction

Oimb the mock lion,

Dakar.

MAMADOU SECK,

of Senegal, has been director

of the Unesco Press since 1984. He was founder-director

of the Senegalese publishing

house Nouvelles Editions

Africaines, which he headed

for ten years, and is the

author of a novel entitled

Cicatrices pour demain ("Scars

cor Tomorrow"; L'Harmattan

18

publishers, Paris, 1989).

Jtff

Skeletons at the feast

IN
October in the Mexican countryside, the

BY JAVIER PEREZ SILLER

crows flock in their thousands to peck at the fresh

corncobs. The agricultural year has ended and it is time for the people to gather in the fruits of
their labour and celebrate the fertility of the

earth. It is also time to prepare for the Feast of

the Dead.

A unique blend of pre-Columbian

and Hispanic myths, Mexico's Feast

This is the most important and popular of

all Mexican fiestas. On 1 and 2 November (All

Saints' Day and All Souls' Day), signs of the coming festivities appear in the city streets. Imi
tation skeletons are stationed in shop-windows,

of the Dead brings together past

and present, devotion and mockery,

the commercial and the spiritual

advertising a variety of products. Bakers sell the

traditional "bread of the dead", decorated with

*t4& \:j*t*ajSSfc*idfSU

7^

1%
shinbones made of flour and eggs. Market stalls
are set up to sell toys, sweets and all sorts of

of death. They include calacas, wire and clay

skeletons which jump and dance; skulls that grin

delicacies whose shapes evoke death. Newspapers publish supplements containing

calaveras (death's-heads), illustrated verses in

when their jawbones are manipulated; jolly horse

men mounted on the skeletons of horses, and au

tomats which at the turn of a handle bring to life

the skeletons of acrobats, boxers, or tilicas

which well-known public figures are shown dead or in the great beyond. Continuing a tradition
which dates back to the end of the nineteenth

trembling, spineless joke skeletons. Many young

men buy one of these puppets for their

century, these verses with their musical cadences

sweethearts. Others prefer to give sweets which

confectioners make specially for the occasionusually sugar or chocolate skulls with the be
loved's name written across the forehead.

usually lampoon politicians or comment on

current events and problems. Children take part in the festivities. They run

through the streets asking adults for money "for

my death's-head" and show people objects they have made. Some of them carry elaborately deco

The fiesta also gives rise to a variety of cul tural activities. In the big cities people go to ex hibitions on death in the pre-Columbian world
or to the theatre to enjoy the Calaveras de Posadas

rated cardboard coffins from which dancing skele tons jump out, while others pierce holes in gourds
to make eyes, nose and a big toothy mouth, and then light a candle inside them. Some even invent

or the traditional play Don Juan Tenorio by the

Spanish Romantic author Jos Zorrilla. On. the

night of 2 November wooden or cardboard puppet-skeletons bearing topical captions are dis
played as part of a calavera competition held at
Mixquic, a township near Mexico City.

stories about creatures beyond the grave, or

disguise themselves in cadaverous masks and go

out into the streets to frighten the wits out of un

suspecting people. In the elegant districts of large
cities it is common to find children and young

As well as festivities in the city streets and

competitions organized in the villages, there are

people celebrating Hallowe'en in American stylea variation of the Celtic feast which origi
nated in Ireland. These carousers are the most

popular dances and fairs at which people eat their

fill, enjoy themselves, get drunk and defy death
because "life is worthless". The festivities can take

dangerous, for if they do not get what they want,

they bombard homes and shops with bags of
flour.

a violent and sometimes tragic turn when old quarrels flare up amid the shouting and the fumes

of alcohol, and one or two of the living brutally

join the dead.

A bewildering range of toys are evocative

Left, skull ofpolished
rock crystal

(15th

16th century).

Jtiight, the owl on this

pasteboard skull represents
wisdom.

Opposite page, the

macabre confectionery that children love includes sugar
skulls with names

emblazoned across their

foreheads.

PRECEDING PAGE

An Aztec myth on the

cycle of life and death is enacted to the sound of a
20
conch shell.

The combination of festivity and commerce

in the streets is the backdrop to more intimate

celebrations of the cult of the dead. During the

two days of the fiesta, people prepare to welcome

their dead, to honour their memory and perform

again the rites and ceremonies they learned in

their families. These rites vary according to the

traditions and social status of each family, but

they all feed the collective imagination by giving shape to the mosaic of elements that make up the
"Mexican personality". Such rites are performed in the privacy of the home and the sacred atmosphere of the cemetery. In elegant modern cemeteries, people bearing

flowers pay their respects at the graves of their

loved ones. But these moments of sadness and

nostalgia do not prevent them from joining in

the festivities in the street later at night.

Things are very different in the countryside,

where the festivities and rites are more

Wl w*

f ^ 4*

deeply rooted in the past and more closely

associated with the celebration of fertility. In this

the country people are perpetuating a blend of

several religions and in some very remote areas

they even recreate pre-Columbian traditions and

beliefs. Even so most of their rites are basically
Christian.

rfMiaftlf'
jmfcr "| * Um' ~

Visits from the dead

The principle is always the same: the living are going to be visited by the dead, and preparations
are made to receive them. On 1 November,

t* 0 1 * Il
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* vi 1

known as the day of the Angelitos (little angels),

the souls of children and young people "troop

smilingly through the cornfields, as if they had just been let out of school". They stay in the
houses for twenty-four hours and leave on 2

**S"^J 1

November when the adults arrive. During these

two days, doors are left open and families are under the obligation to welcome all visitors and
friends, since "the souls like to arrive and find

Er^l^^^^KpP

a fiesta going on".

Imagine for a moment that we are watching

this ceremony in a small Mexican township...

A tightly packed crowd of women of all ages

surges through the cobbled streets. Some of them

are carrying their babies swaddled in black rebo zos (shawls) on their backs. The men go on ahead, accompanying the orchestra and singing tuneless ly, while children amuse themselves by running
from one end of the procession to the other. When they arrive at the cemetery, the people

spread out among the tombs, which are decorated

with wreathes of yellow cempasuchil (marigolds). Dozens of lighted candles encircle the graves. The
whole scene is illuminated in a shining cloud in
which the scent of resin is mixed with the 21

fragrance of incense and flowers.

'

*sftr

fe<<v

At midnight, the church bells peal out,

announcing the arrival of the dead. At the same
moment rockets are fired and the orchestra starts

to play. There is widespread rejoicing and every body joins in a hymn of welcome to the dead. The living and the dead then go together from the cemetery to the houses. In order to ensure that the souls do not lose their way, the path is marked out with flower petals from the threshold to the heart of the dwelling. In its fur

thest recesses, framed by an arch of cempasuchil,

is an altar complete with an offering of everything
the deceased needs to recover from the journey:

a glass of water, succulent dishes including mole (spiced meat), chocolates, atole (a cornmeal gruel
drink), "bread of the dead", alcoholic drinks such

as brandy, tequila, mezcal or pulque, cigars, a

pack of playing cards, and sweetmeats made of pumpkin and sweet potato. There is even the

fragrant smell of incense and candles which burn

all night and cast their light on images of the

saints and photographs of the departed.
In the darkest corners of the room, the old

grandmother sits whispering. "Souls of my

ancestors, are you satisfied with what we have

done for you today? My sons have worked

hard this year and we have been well rewarded.
The harvest was abundant and the corncobs

are fat. Thank you for your help, for without

you the offering would have been small. How
is St. Joseph? Did he receive the masses I said
for him?"

People are said to be able to detect the

moment when the souls approach, since "the

flames of the candles flicker violently" and, once the deceased have eaten, "the food no longer has

any taste". The family then asks the dead to stay

longer and eat and drink together "as in the good
old days".

The revival of Indian myths

The word "fiesta" is used to describe a wide range
K^emetery on the island of
Janitzio, in Mexico's
Michoacn state.

of rites and celebrations which have sprung from ancient Mexican culture and that of the Spaniards.
The myths evoked all set out to answer the same questions, where we come from and where we
are going.

For the pre-Hispanic peoples, death had a

fleeting and ritual meaning. Life and death were

regarded as merely two sides of the same coin.

The dead carry on living in another plane of real

JAVIER PEREZ SILLER,

ity from where, with the help of the gods, they will be reborn. Thus say the myths of the cycle
of the five Suns and that of Quetzalcoatl, who dared defy the Aztec god of the dead and seek
the bones with which he had to create human

Mexican sociologist and

historian, is a member of

the faculty of political

science at the National

Autonomous University of
Mexico. He contributed to

a study on festivals of death published by Association

d'Ides, Paris, 1988.

life from Mictlan, the underworld. At the same

time man is responsible for conferring life on

23

the gods themselves and for the renewal of the

cosmos. Once created, man becomes a creator.

From 1521 onwards, when the Spaniards

conquered Mesoamerica, this mythology was

combated by a kind of spiritual colonization as

^ , The Pavilion
BY LAURENCE CAILLET

the Catholic Church sought to replace "pagan" rites and myths with its own. The new myths claimed that man was created to worship God and that his fate after death depended on whether
he had performed that task and on whether his
behaviour had conformed to the moral tenets dic

The Japanese greet the New

Year with a time-honoured

tated by the Church. In short, judgement was

passed on his acts.

religious ritual inspired

While the descendants of the Europeans

adopted Christianity, a syncretic religion emerged

among the mestizos and the Indians. It was based

by the myth of the water of youth

on the two sets of myths under the patronage of such awe-inspiring images as that of the Virgin
of Guadalupe, Queen of Mexico and Empress of
America. But the Indian customs were banned

and remained hidden from prying eyes.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the

X OR many years the West pictured Japan as a

land of geishas and cherry blossom. Today this once-familiar image has been displaced by that of
a country of contrasts between old and new, a

situation changed radically, and Indian myths

began to be revived. With independence, the

search for a national identity or "Mexicanity" led intellectuals to extol the Indian past. With the
separation of Church and state, religious burials
were not allowed and the administration of

land of samurai and motorcycles.

It would be wrong, however, to see tradition

and modernity as opposing forces in Japan, a

country which ever since the seventh century has
been a centralized state and where time-honoured

cemeteries passed into the hands of the govern

ment, weakening the Church's control over
burial rites. After the Mexican Revolution

community traditions have actually served to

encourage, not hinder, modernization. The

(1900-1917), the Indian was regarded as a "nation

al asset" and attempts were made to revive Indian

picturesque and joyful festivals which periodically

strengthened community ties have survived

myths. As a result, the government now partici pates in the promotion of the Feast of the Dead.
The Feast's vitality was dramatically demon
strated in 1985. Some weeks before it was due to

industrial development and still attract pilgrims

and tourists. And although their purely religious

function has atrophied, they still transmit the
centuries-old syncretic beliefs of Great Vehicle

take place, a violent earthquake destroyed part

of Mexico City and took a heavy toll of lives.

In the afternoon of 2 November, thousands of

Buddhism and of Japan's indigenous religion, Shinto, the Way of the Gods.
Japan's main festive period was and is the
New Year, which under the ancient lunar-solar

people paraded through the city centre laying

offerings of flowers before the ruins of the tall

buildings which had been turned into tombs. Car

rying lighted candles, they arrived two abreast in

calendar was celebrated shortly before spring

ploughing. This was the time of the festival of

Zcalo square and, as if they were re-enacting the Nhuatl cosmic myth, divided the square into four parts. One group tendered an offering to the
Cathedral, which is on the site of the old Aztec

the water of youth, a rite which is generally

known as Omizutori (the drawing of water) and whose observance is traditionally believed

necessary to bring about the return of spring. The best description of the meaning of Omizutori is found in a haiku by the poet Rita (1718-1787):
Drawing of water!

temple, while the rest held up placards of protest. As well as an act of protest this was a spirited
gesture of mobilization against death, an ac
knowledgment of man's weakness before the

The water of whirlpools warms From this day also. Every year since the eighth century the
festival has been celebrated at the Buddhist

forces of nature and of his appeal to a divine power. It was simultaneously a political, religious and mythical action, but it turned into a fiesta
that gave expression to man's creative dimension and to his ability to halt for a brief moment the
24 inexorable march of time.

LJance of the bodhisattvas

of the Second Moon

monastery of Tdaiji, at Nara, an ancient capital of Japan. Today it takes place in the first and

second weeks of March, at a time corresponding

to the second moon of the old calendar.

In the Pavilion of the Second Moon, a vast

wooden building on the top of a hill to the east of the monastery, twelve monks meet to honour

Kannon, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion and mercy. Guided by giant torches whose em

bers are collected by the faithful as talismans, they

return to the pavilion fifteen nights in succession.

They walk around the altar, tirelessly intoning

hymns of praise and penitence. From the prayer
room, which is separated from the holy of holies

by a long veil of transparent linen, the pilgrims

can see the outsize shadows of the monks praying for the peace and prosperity of the world.
On each of the fifteen days of ritual, six serv

ices are celebrated at specific moments of the day and night. Through ten or more hours of incan
tation to Kannon, of chanting and ritual kneeling,

the participants seek to expiate sins committed

the previous year and to accumulate merit.

The thousand circumambulations

Almost every night, special ceremonies are held

as part of the penitential rites. According to the

"Illustrated History of the Origins of the Pavilion

of the Second Moon", the oldest manuscript of

which dates from the sixteenth century, a Tdaiji
monk named Jitch celebrated the feast of the drawing of water for the first time in 752. When

he reached the paradise of the bodhisattvas, Jitch

contemplated their ceremonies and asked how

1 orches illuminate the

Pavilion of the Second

Moon.

they could be imitated and performed by men. The bodhisattvas replied as follows: "A day and
Intoning the name of
Kannon to the

a night here correspond to 400 human years. And

so it is all the more difficult, in the short human

accompaniment of the
sistrum.

time-span, to perform the rites according to the

rules and to carry out the thousand circumam

bulations solemnly, without overlooking any

detail. Furthermore, how could men reproduce these rites without a Kannon with a living body?"

Jitch then said: "The ceremony must be speed ed up and the thousand circumambulations per
formed at a run.... If I call on him with a sincere

heart, why should a Kannon with a living body

not come?" And he returned to transmit these
rites to men.

Because of the difference between human

time and godly time, the monks run a strange race

around the altar dedicated to Kannon on the last

three days of each of the two weeks of ritual. At

26

first the monks walk very slowly, rolling up the sleeves of their robes and their stoles; then they fasten the lower parts of their garments to their legs. Meanwhile, the curtain concealing the holy

mum '#1
m

11

.yJ .-

LAURENCE CAILLET,

French ethnologist, is a
researcher with France's
National Centre for

Scientific Research (CNRS).

Her publications include a

study on the water of youth

ritual in Japan entitled Syncrtisme au Japon
Omizutori: le rituel de l'eau

de jouvence (Paris, 1981),

and a book on annual

Japanese festivals and rites.

27

of holies is lifted so that the crowd of pilgrims

suddenly sees the splendour of the rites and ex
periences a joy equal to that felt by Jitch when

he reached paradise. Bells are loudly rung during

this part of the ceremony. Suddenly all noise ceases, and in the astonish

Oil
.

ing silence that follows, all the monks begin to

run barefoot around the altar. One of them

abruptly leaves the group and rushes into the antechamber of the prayer room where a woo

::

i! i Loi

den board known as the plank of prostration is fixed parallel to the floor by a kind of spring. He leaps onto the plank, striking it energetically with his knee, and then returns to his place. Each time
the monks go around the altar, one of them runs

ir"*
j

and strikes the plank with his knee, the part of

the body which symbolizes the forehead, elbow

and knees, with which the worshippers must touch the ground as a sign of penitence. Eventu
ally the pace slackens, the curtain falls, the into
nation starts again, and the silhouettes of the

monks are only visible as grey shadows.

On other evenings, the gods themselves come

Distributing holy water to

the pilgrims.

Moon during the night of the twelfth to the

thirteenth.

and dance, disguised as eight monks whose faces are masked by their hair. The first to arrive is

Left, the penitential ritual

the water divinity, who skips and runs with tiny

steps and sprinkles the prayer room with lustral
water. Next come the god of fire, who scatters

On that night, at two o'clock in the morning, the "master of esoteric rites", wearing a brocade
hat, leaves the pavilion and turns towards the hill

embers, and the god Keshi, who sprinkles grains of rice cracked in the fire. Everyone dances and
leaps to the noisy rhythm made by three other
gods with a rattle, a conch shell and a bell. Two
more brandish a sabre and a willow rod to drive

where the miraculous spring is located. With him is a faithful layman wearing a hermit's white

robe. He is followed by monks bearing magic

rods to which conch shells and bells are fastened.

The conch shells are sounded and then, guided by a lay torch-bearer, everyone goes down the
steps leading to the spring. At that moment, an orchestra begins to play ancient Chinese music

away evil spirits.

The well of the god Ony

During these nights of dancing the water of youth is drawn and distributed to the pilgrims. What
is the origin of this ritual? The "Illustrated His
tory of the Origins of the Pavilion of the Second

and the monks pray for the water to gush out.

Today the spring is concealed beneath a

flimsy building with a grey-tiled roof, the four

corners of which are adorned with birds. Some

Moon" records how "In the province of Wakasa,

Ony, a god who possessed the river Ony, lin

gered while out fishing and arrived late at the rites

think the birds are pigeons, others that they are messenger cormorants of Ony, the god of fish ing and sovereign of the waters which according to Japanese beliefs form a reservoir of longevity,
if not of eternity. He is also associated with cin

of the twice seven days and seven nights. Pro foundly regretful, the god said to Jitch the monk
that as a sign of contrition he would make the

nabar, the essential component of the elixir of im

mortality which the Taoists of China and Japan

tried to concoct in ancient times.

Only the hermit and the master of the eso

lustral water spring near to the place of the feast, and at that very moment two cormorants, one black and the other white, suddenly rose from the rock and perched on a nearby tree. From the traces of these birds sprang water of incompara
ble sweetness. Stones were laid there and it be

teric rites enter the building which covers the

spring. The water, carried three times in buckets

to the Pavilion of the Second Moon, is poured

into a wide tub of light-coloured wood which is immediately covered with a white cloth and

came the spring of lustral water, aka-i..."

offered to Kannon. From that day on it is dis tributed to the thousands of pilgrims who flock
to receive in the palms of their hands a few drops of this extraordinary liquid which encourages lon gevity and is a panacea for all ills.
In spite of its extreme solemnity, this rite is

And so, on the second day of March, the priests of the sanctuary of Ony pour into the

river a phial of lustral water which is supposed to flow through an underground channel and
reach the spring of the Pavilion of the Second

not very different from that with which peasant

29

Left, the shadow of a monk falls

on the altar curtain.

i\ight, the plank ofprostration.

Oelow right, rice cake offerings to Kannon.

families welcome the spring. On the eve of the first day of spring, the master of the house, his
eldest son or a specially chosen servant rises while
it is still dark. He dons a traditional kimono and

bows before the altar of the household gods after sprinkling himself with a few drops of purifying
water. Then he puts on new straw sandals and

goes to the nearest spring. Beside the spring or on the lip of the well, he offers the water-god rice cakes and, while reciting a magic formula, draws
with a new ladle and bucket the first water of the
year.

Without speaking to the people he meets on

his way, he returns home and places the freshly

drawn water on the household altars. Then he

awakens the members of the family and each one

drinks tea brewed with this water of youth which

as far as possible compensates for the aging caused by the New Year. According to tradition, peo
ple become a year older at New Year, not on
their birthday.

The origin of this marvellous water is

described in the following story from the

southern island of Miyako: "Once, long ago,

when men settled on the beautiful island of

Miyako, the Sun and Moon wished to give them

an elixir of immortality and sent them Akariyazagama, a young servant with red hair and a red

face. On the night that marked the changing of

the season, Akariyazagama came down to Earth
with two buckets, one of which contained the

water of immortality and the other the water of

mortality. The Moon and the Sun had ordered

the day of the feast of the new season, they send from heaven the water of youth. That is why
even now, at dawn on the day of the feast of the first season, water of youth is drawn from the well and all the family bathes in it." The water of youth which rises at the foot
of the Pavilion of the Second Moon, like that

him to bathe men with the water of immortality

and to bathe the snake with the water of death.

As Akariyazagama, tired after his long journey,

put down the buckets beside the road and uri

nated, a great snake appeared and bathed in the

water of immortality. Weeping, Akariyazagama

had men take a bath of death and then returned to heaven. When he described how he had carried

which bubbles up in family wells, thus comes from the other world. It is carried by waves from

the distant land of the gods, the land of Tokoyo,

a world both sombre and luminous, a land of

out his mission, the Sun was furious and said to

abundance and immortality, but also the resting

place of the dead on the other side of the sea.

him: 'Your offence against men is irreparable...'

"Since then, the snake is reborn when it sheds

its skin, whereas men die. However, the gods

took pity on men and wished to enable them, if

Penitence and the absorption of holy water are two facets of a single hopeless desire to ob
literate the wear and tear of time and establish

not to live for ever, at least to grow somewhat younger. And so each year, on the night before

in the world of men something of the eternity

which is the prerogative of the gods.
31

Farewell
to winter
BY HLNE YVERT-JALU
JL HE Russian carnival, Maslenitsa, whose origins
are lost in the mists of time, is still celebrated with

undiminished vigour. The celebrations include a number of ancient customs, such as the eating of

blini (pancakes), tobogganing and sleigh rides. To

these have now been added a host of other

diversions, such as ski races, skating competitions

and dancing and singing to the accompaniment

of accordions and balalaikas, which make the
"Farewell to the Russian Winter", as it is

commonly called today, more of an entertain ment than a rite. Even though " certain ancient rites are from time to time resurrected, the deeper

meaning of such traditional practices is being

gradually lost.
The name Maslenitsa is derived from the

Russian word maslo, meaning "butter". During

the week preceding the six-week period of Lent that leads up to Easter, the eating of meat was forbidden by the Church and so people ate dairy products, fish, eggs and blini maslenye, pancakes
to which melted butter was added to make them
more creamy.

The word Maslenitsa signifies both the carnival itself and the grotesque doll-figure that personifies it. In Moscow, by the eighteenth century, the symbolic aspects of the carnival had already been lost, but they survived in the countryside and in some villages carnival was still being celebrated in its traditional form at the beginning of the twentieth century. The festivities began with the welcome of the Maslenitsa, a doll made of straw and rags, usually
in the likeness of a woman. It was dressed in a

The evergreen popularity of the traditional

Russian carnival to
32

welcome the spring

} S;

>

Sometimes a young couple would be buried together for a brief moment in the snow.

The richer families would begin preparing their blini on the Monday, the poorer ones on the Thursday or Friday. The women would make the batter in accordance with a given ritual. At
JtSlini ready for the feast blouse and a sleeveless peasant's smock and a scarf
was knotted on its head. Sometimes it was

moonrise some would add snow to the mixture;

others, acting with the utmost secrecy, would set

attached to a wheel at the top of a long pole, sometimes the role of Maslenitsa was actually played by a person. It was then paraded through the village, accompanied, on foot or on sleighs, by a noisy crowd of villagers who gave vent to their joy with shouts and bursts of laughter and by dancing and declaiming poems of welcome: The worthy Maslenitsa, generous boyar, Has come to descend our snowy slopes,
To feast on blini And to abandon herself To wholehearted enjoyment. Then the Maslenitsa was placed on a mound or other high point where it remained until the
end of the week.

to work at night at the river's edge when the stars

came out. In some districts, the first pancake to be cooked was placed on the window-sill for the

souls of the departed. In other areas, it was given to beggars so that they could commemorate the dead. Pancakes, served very hot with sour cream, herrings and caviare, were lavished on relatives,

friends and acquaintances. The laws of hospitality required open house to be kept throughout the
carnival. People ate and drank their fill and more,

as if sating themselves so as to get through the long period of Lenten abstinence. As the popular
saying went: "It is sinful not to drink to the
Maslenitsa."

It was also customary for a young wife's

mother to invite her new son-in-law to a meal

It is sinful not to drink to the Maslenitsa

The welcome ceremony triggered off a variety of entertainments. These ranged from horse races,
pitched battles between unarmed men and attacks

of blini liberally washed down, a custom which

by horsemen on the defenders of forts made of snow, to swings and seesaws. Above all there was tobogganing, which was very popular with the young men and women since it gave them an opportunity to get better acquainted with their

gave rise to countless charming songs. The young married couple would come bearing presents and might stay for two or three days. Sometimes, to welcome them, a Maslenitsa figure would be attached to the roof gable. On the Thursday or Friday, tobogganing would give way to sleigh rides. Young couples, and particularly newly-weds, would parade around their village before setting off for neigh bouring villages or even the nearest town, all
anxious to show themselves off in their finest

tarewell to winter as the

Maslenitsa burns...

wives or husbands to be. Young married couples would shoot down the slopes together in full view of the whole village with the wife sitting on her husband's knees. By popular demand, a couple had to kiss before and after making a descent.

equipage and their richest attire. The horses'

manes would be decorated with ribbons and

paper flowers, the sleighs would be covered with rugs and the curved wooden cross-piece that

35

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-y * * "ai,
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x '--y*:-: m .#'-. rfL '

if*' w\
Til l!S

-'Wa.

iL

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aj

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kj^li
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ft

Sunday evening the sound of rejoicing was hushed as if by magic. This was the moment of Pardon. The villagers would ask each other's forgiveness for any wrongs they might have done one another and then embrace as a sign of reconciliation. At the cemetery, the dead too were asked for forgiveness and blini were placed on their graves. On "Holy Monday", the first day of Lent, houses were given a thorough cleaning, after which the villagers would go to the bania (the bath-house) to bathe themselves. This was the beginning of a period of spiritual and physical purification following the excesses of the festival.

'

W "tiSP
rather Frost and the Snow

A holy time
What is the significance of the Maslenitsa rites?

Those who accept the approach of the mytho

logical school, whose ideas were fashionable in the middle of the nineteenth century, see the
festival as an echo of the ancient Slav cult of the

Sun. It was a celebration of the Sun-King and the

interment of winter. The pancakes, whose round

Maiden, two legendary

passed over the horses' withers, freshly-painted in bright colours, would be hung with sleighbells. The women would leave their cloaks half

figures from the Russian

New Year carnival.

open so that their fur linings could be admired.

In short, elegance was all. On the last Sunday of carnival, known as

Pardon Sunday, the villagers would take their leave of Maslenitsa, the farewells being made in the same noisy bustle as the welcome a week earli er. Once more the straw doll-figure would be installed on a sleigh, but this time the procession accompanying it took on the air of a burlesque funeral. A broken-down nag, rigged out in a pair of torn trousers, pulled a dilapidated sleigh covered with threadbare matting. The driver, a

shape recalled the shape of the sun, were intended to ensure its return. The bonfires, generally lit on high ground, were intended to unite earth and heaven and thus to speed the coming of warmer days. Rimsky-Korsakov took this theme as the basis of his opera Snegurochka (Snow Maiden,

village elder dressed in rags, his face blackened with soot, would indulge in all kinds of buffoo nery, some of which, in other circumstances, would have been considered to go beyond the bounds of decency. Sometimes a small boat or a feeding-trough,
both of which were associated with ancient bu

n L.\'!

rial rites, were placed on the sleigh. At the head of the procession walked a man or a woman

dressed up as a priest and holding an old shoe dangling from a piece of string and representing a censer. Wearing grotesque masks, the priest's assistants intoned parodies of religious chants. Arriving at the edge of the village, the proces sion would halt in a freshly-sown field to "kill"
HLNE YVERT-JALU,
of France, is a lecturer at

the Maslenitsa. In some ceremonies, the Maslenit

the University of Paris I.

She is the author of a
number of studies on social

sa would be stripped of its clothing, torn apart and cut up into hundreds of little pieces which
were then buried in the snow. In other cases it

and cultural questions in

the Soviet Union.

would be drowned in a river or burned on a huge

funeral pyre of straw, wood and a heap of old

rubbish collected, or in some districts stolen, for

this purpose by the young people of the village. This ceremony, the high point of the car
36

nival, also signalled the end of the festivities. On

1881). The death of his heroine at the end of the

opera made possible the return of Yarilo/Sun to shine again in the kingdom of Berendei and for spring to come again. For those who favour the theory of borrow

figure was buried or burned. The magical power of the laughter that accompanied the "killing" of the doll-figure was thought to help the earth
become fruitful.

ings, which dates from the end of the last century,

the Maslenitsa derives from Greek-influenced

Roman rites that may have been transmitted to the Slavs by minstrels from Byzantium. Others among them most Russian specialistsbelieve that, like other popular

festivals, the carnival is based on pre-Christian,

Slav agricultural cults and that the festivities were intended to ensure good crops. The earth, which is seen as female, is induced to become produc tive by means of magical procedures, the most important being the invocation of the dead and the rites of preparation and of fecundation. Blini are offered to the dead so that they will tend the seeds and seedlings that have been placed in the
bowels of the earth, where the dead dwell. Erotic

For many historians of religions, however, the significance of the Russian carnival goes deeper than this merely agricultural explanation might suggest. They believe that the Maslenitsa is important because it belongs to that category of festivals that proclaim the end of one period and the beginning of anothera crucial moment' in any traditional society. Marking the transition from winter to spring and, in ancient Russia, the beginning of the New Year, it is a festival of the recreation of the universeagriculture being only one aspect of the symbolism of periodic
regeneration.

The cult of the dead, a vestige of the ceremonies that accompanied the transitional period between two cycles, forms a link with this

activities were also seen as a method of making the earth fertile. Drawing a parallel between human fecundity and the fertility of the earth, they attributed magical powers to sexuality; hence the attention paid to young couples during the festival. Hence also the wearing of masks which facilitated licentious behaviour. Finally, the fertilizing power of the ear of corn,

myth of eternal renewal. Seen in this light, the reversal of values, such as the parody of interment and the general licentiousness, may represent the primordial chaos which must be mastered to
make possible the cyclic recommencement of the order of things. The confession of sins and Pardon Sunday express the desire for a return to the purity of this new beginning of primordial time. Finally, creation is symbolized by that essential element of the festival, the lighting of
fires.

1 he Winter Carnival

(1916), by the Russian painter Boris Mikhailovich

Kustodiev (1880-1927).

represented by the straw of which the doll-figure

was made, was transmitted to the earth when the

-^W

Samba time!
M, LENTION the word "carnival" and every
one thinks immediately of Brazil. Two weeks before the festival begins, all important business is postponed until after the four frantic days during which the whole country grinds to a halt and everyone takes time out to dance. At carnival time the press, radio and television talk about nothing else. And when Brazilians travelling abroad are asked about their country, the subject of carnival always crops up sooner or later. In

short, it would be impossible to imagine Brazil without its carnival, an event unique in scope and in the collective passion it arouses. Less well known is the increasingly impor tant role played in the carnival by Brazil's samba
schools, the first of which was founded in 1928

at Mangueira, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro. Many more schools were started, but at that time they
had no direct connection with the carnival.

Products of the poorer quarters with high black populations, they played no part in the festival, which took place in the centre of Rio and was celebrated by the middle class. Poor people who wanted to take part in the carnival did so virtually in secret; they were even chased away by the police when they attempted to sing and dance in the centre of the city.
The samba, however, soon made itself felt as

a particularly vital form of expression of black identity, which by then had survived three and

a half centuries of slavery. It spread rapidly to the favelas (shanty-towns) in the hills around Rio

de Janeiro. Soon the samba had its own public parades and then, in 1935, the Rio authorities gave official standing to the carnival in its popular
form.

The samba schools were given subsidies from the public purse, ceasing to be informal groups and developing into organizations which received monthly subscriptions and had their own premises, articles of association and elected boards
of directors. A federation of samba schools was

established and only its members could take part in the parades. The growing interest of the state in these parades, coupled with general public demand for exciting spectacles, speeded up this process of "bureaucratization".
In the 1970s, the schools became full-blown

38

show-business companies operating permanently throughout the year. The transient glory of the parades is the product of a continuous effort of which the spectators are quite unaware. The time is long past when the schools thought about the carnival only a day or two before it began. Today the schools get far more of their income from balls and rehearsals (many of which

BY SERGIO ALVES TEIXEIRA

The story of the

samba schools which
make the Rio

carnival one of the

world's most

colourful and
exciting spectacles

Left, the "Children of

Gandhi" samba school at

the carnival of Salvador de

Baha, Brazil.

Opposite page, Rio

carnival parades.
39

are open to the paying public and attract as many as 15,000 spectators), from the commercial exploitation of their cultural product, and from the patronage of the bankers behind the bicho (a kind of lottery), than they do from the monthly subscriptions paid by their members.
The institutionalization of the schools has

also changed the profile of their staff. Most of the accountants, lawyers and administrators that they
have hired come from a different social back

ground from that of their founders and the schools have had to adapt to their viewpoints. The largest schools now aim to set themselves up in modern premises similar to those occupied by clubs patronized by the middle classes. Two Brazilian writers, Amaury Jorio and Hiram Araujo, have memorably described the exciting moments before the carnival begins. "The abre-alas, the leading float that symbolizes the school, is in position. Between it and the allegorical floats that follow come the dancers. The carnival committee is busily at work. The
leading figures slowly take up their positions. The
musicians tune their instruments. When the com

mand is given, the leading singer, high up on his

float, intones the samba-enredo, the theme of the samba. In accordance with custom, the entire

school listens as he sings it through once and then the musicians take up the melody and everyone starts to sing, repeating the samba two or three times without moving as they await the arrival of any latecomers. Then suddenly, as if by mag
ic, the whole school moves off. This is the be

ginning of the most beautiful spectacle of popular art in the world. As though out for a stroll, form ing a procession, dancing and singing the samba, diffusing joy and rapture, the school parades
before us."

The 'sambadrome'
Tiered seating was erected when the spectacle had developed sufficiently to attract large crowds who

were prepared to pay. to. see it. An area was blocked off by means of temporary fencing so that only those who had paid an entry fee could watch. This roused considerable protest from those who could not afford to pay. In 1984, for the first time, the parades took place in a fixed purpose-built locationthe "parade causeway", or "sambadrome" as it is popularly known. Thirteen metres wide, 700 metres in length, the sambadrome is located on the Avenue Marqus de Sapuca and can accom modate 85,000 spectators. It is the work of Brazil's most famous architect, Oscar Niemeyer. The causeway comes into its own on carnival Sunday and Monday when, at nightfall, the topranking samba schools parade for an hour and
40
a half each.

Everything is strictly regulatedthe marking system followed by the jury, the parade time
allotted to each school, the minimum number of

participants, the dimensions of the allegorical

floats, the theme of the samba, the individual and

collective figures that are to illustrate it, and the order of presentation of the items.

Today, each school organizes its parade

around a theme of its own choice, but this was

not always the case. Freedom of choice was the rule at the beginning, but, from 1939 until the

end of the 1960s, successive dictators imposed themes illustrating the history of the nation. Then, in response to pressure from an increas ingly demanding public, the schools recovered
their freedom of choice.

Samba themes dominate not only the parades

themselves but the entire musical content of the

carnivalat the balls, in the streets, on television,

radio and on records. They have become products of the culture industry. Television gives the carnival exceptionally wide coverage. Not only does it transmit nation wide programmes on the parades staged by Rio's top samba schools, it also screens regional balls and parades both locally and nationwide. In 1989,
an estimated 65 million viewers watched these
transmissions.

Another key innovation has been the appear ance of the carnavalesco, the specialist organizer of parades. He conceives the theme, designs the effigies and the allegorical characters, sees to it that the necessary accessories are at hand, selects
the materials to be used, chooses the colours, is

An explosion of colour,
Rio 1989.

responsible for the overall direction of the spec tacle, rehearses the performers and, more recent ly, even has his say in the wording of the samba
themes.

Many of these carnival experts are intellec tuals who have studied choreography, the arts and folklore. Under their direction the parades have become grandiose spectacles, not so much through the number of performers taking part (between 3,000 and 4,000) as through the richness
of the colours and the ordered movements and

rhythms they have introduced.

This new sumptuousness has won far from

SERGIO ALVES
TEIXEIRA

unanimous approval, and many a purist critic has

is a Brazilian anthropologist
who teaches at the Federal

University of Rio Grande

called for a return to the original, simple tradition. Yet, miraculously, the changes have not extinguished the ardent emotions and joy of the
ordinary samba-lover. All those unknown men

do Sul, Porto Alegre. His

publications include studies

of rites of passage, cockfighting, and the significance of feasts and

festivals.

and women, the real driving force behind the carnival, who are willing to spend up to threequarters of their annual salaries just to enjoy these few days of fantasy, still thrill to the mysterious vibrations of the carnival. "It is as though I have entered the gates of heaven. Were I to lose my balance, I should lie down and weep."

41

Mob insurrections often turned

into popular festivals at key

moments in the French Revolution which were later commemorated

by the state

T:HE

French Revolution ushered in an age which proclaimed itself to be one of liberty, equality and fraternity. This radical new departure after centuries of monarchy did not
come about without incident. Between 1789 and

1794, the peopleabove all the people of Paris, the centre of political powerconstantly took to, the streets. Full of hope in the future, the participants in this great upheaval turned it into a popular festival which lasted for five years
almost without interruption.

The most striking symbol of this great surge of revolutionary hope is to be found in the many "trees of liberty" that were planted during these

years. In the countryside, a "maypole", whether a tree or simply a post, was traditionally planted on such occasions as weddings and harvest-time as an emblem of fertility, joy and success. During the Revolution, it became a symbol of the
destruction of feudalism, then the emblem of

liberty. A popular festival was inconceivable without a tree of liberty. Each village planted its
own. Adorned with red, white and blue ribbons,

with cockades, flags, red bonnets or the text of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the tree was the centrepiece of the gathering. Beneath its branches liberty newly won was feted and rounds
were danced. It was held to be sacred. When it

was planted, a solemn ceremony was held which often ended with farandoles and singing.

Let's dance the Carmagnole! Long live the cannon's roar!

The songs which had long been used to accompany popular dances had a special place in the revolutionary landscape. More than 2,000 of them have been listed for this period alone. In a society in which half the adult male population was illiterate, songs were a powerful vehicle of revolutionary debate. The streets resounded to patriotic, civic or satirical lyrics. Wars between songspatriotic songs versus royalist songs
sometimes broke out. Street singers were

ubiquitous and attracted crowds which joined in songs that usually featured old and well-known
tunes to which new words had been set.

People sang everywhere and on every possible

42

La Carmagnole. Anonymous print (1792).

Liberty, Equality, Festivity!

BY LAURENCE COUDART

43

1 he National Guard

accompany the people

on their triumphant return

to Paris from Versailles,

6 October 1789.

Anonymous etching.

1 he fountain of
Regeneration "among

the ruins of the Bastille"

during the festival

of 10 August 1793.
Contemporary engraving

by Isidore-Stanislas
Helman.

grenadiers of the National Guard who had come to lend a hand, surrounded the king and several

wagons loaded with grain, flour and barrels of wine. It was a day of rejoicing and fraternization symbolized by the poplar branches which protruded from the gun barrels and which some carried in their hands. It was a day of gaiety, in spite of the deaths of the bodyguards whose heads were borne on pikes: woe betide anyone who dared resist the sovereign people! The heads were warnings rather than
trophies. "The Parisian," wrote Sbastien Mercier in his Tableau de Paris, "makes a joke out of these
tumultuous days." It is true that the most fantastic and outlandish tricks were played amidst

the shouts of a people which, Mercier added, "wished to repair in one day the painful repression which it had endured for several
centuries." A vast crowd took to the streets and

occasion: in public squares but also in popular assemblies and meetings, in prisons, theatres, and even at the tribune of the National Assembly. Once when a citizen had sung at the bar Danton inveighed against what he called this "singing mania". "I have in my nature a good measure of

French gaiety," he cried, "but I demand that from now on at the bar of this Assembly we should only hear reason in prose." Everything was good for a song: public events, swings of opinion, the decrees of the National Assembly. All the struggles of the time, internal and external, found
expression in song.

Every popular insurrection was punctuated with singing. The great revolutionary "days" sometimes ended with spontaneous festivals, as
on 5 and 6 October 1789, when almost 7,000

mingled with this strange procession, while certain onlookers were struck dumb at the sight of the "terrible gaiety" of the "multitude" which surrounded the monarchthe last absolute king to rule by divine right as if he were a prisoner. These popular demonstrations inevitably call to. mind the traditional carnival. The people expressed their joy in impromptu dancing and gesticulation. They treated with derision all that societythe old societyheld sacred, giving vent to a vast outpouring of revolutionary feeling. In spite of the battles, the deaths and the blood, they danced with mingled gaiety and fury. They danced to exorcise their fear as they consigned the past to oblivion. During the insurrection of 10 August 1792 which inaugurated the Republican era, the Paris
mob sacked the chteau of the Tuileries, mas

angry Parisian women marched on Versailles, invaded the royal chteau and won satisfaction
for their demands.

44

Louis XVI was brought back to Paris amid a dancing, yelling, laughing crowd. Thousands of people accompanied the royal coach: "We're bringing him!" they shouted at the bystanders. Women seated on cannon, wearing the hats of

sacred the Swiss guards who had fired on the crowdtheir heads were brandished on pikes and danced to celebrate its victory over the monarchy. The Carmagnole, a famous song still sung today, exalts that day of the "second revo lution". Its refrain, "Let's dance the Carmagnole! Long live the cannon's roar!", is a good illustra-

tion of those hours of joy and violence. Groups dancing farandoles and rounds were seen again
on 21 January 1793 at the place of execution of
Louis XVI, known as "Louis the last".

The triumph of the goddess

of Reason
The popular festivals which made the strongest impact on contemporaries were undoubtedly the dechristianizing masquerades. The promul gation of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in 1790 divided the French clergy into those who agreed to swear an oath of loyalty to the new
Constitution and those who refused after the

Constitution had been condemned by the Pope. An important section of the clergy gradually took
the side of the counter-revolution and for the

people the Church became an enemy of the new liberty. New saints, the "martyrs of liberty" who had died for the Revolution, replaced the old. The deputy Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau, the journalist Marat (author of the popular newspaper L'Ami du peuple) and the municipal official Charlier
all three of whom were assassinated in

1793became the focus of popular veneration. Their busts were displayed at crossroads, in

squares, meeting-places and theatres, and adorned

with flowers"civic crowns". Processions were

organized and hymns composed in their honour. The names of these republican heroes were even
bestowed on new-born babies.

On 10 November 1793 a great festival in

honour of liberty was held in Notre-Dame cathedral. An actress from the Opera played the

role of the goddess of Reason. While hymns were sung, a procession of floats decked out with
flowers, of sans-culottes, children, members of

popular societies and official bodies accompanied the goddess as she symbolically released a black
slave from his chains at the foot of an artificial mountain erected outside the cathedral. The

attributes of royalty and religion were burned in a bonfire around which people danced and drank to fraternity until dawn. After this festival, NotreDame became the Temple of Reason. The cult of Reason soon spread throughout provincial France, and the churches were secularized.

lords, carved fleurs de lys (symbols of the monarchy) and effigies of foreign kings or the Pope.... This htroclite cargo was unloaded on to an immense bonfire. Everyone danced farandoles around the fire or the tree of liberty and drank wine"the holy water of the
Republicans".

Above, the "Festival

of the Supreme Being", staged by the artist Jacques Louis David
and celebrated on the

Champ de Mars, Paris, on

8 June 1794. Contemporary
engraving.

No more kings, no more impostors, liberty or death!

The French leaders were alarmed by these

1 op, Planting a Tree

of Liberty, a watercolour

Such was the setting of the wave of dechristianization which took place during the first six months of the Year II of the Republic (autumn

by Etienne Bricourt (18th century).

1793-spring 1794). In Paris and in provincial

villages grotesque and disorderly processions assembled. Rigged out in priestly garments, dressed up as bishops or the Pope, riding donkeys, pigs and goats which were also decked out with crosses, mitres and Bibles, the participants in these carnivalesque gatherings mocked the Church and all established forms of power. Pantomimes were staged, people drank from chalices, and made a terrific din as they followed wagons laden with holy-water stoups, confessionals, ciboriums,
statues of saints, crosses, the feudal titles of former

manifestations of popular rejoicing in what were simultaneously festivals of destruction and regeneration. Efforts were made to bring order and morality to outbursts which some compared to orgies. In opposition to these atheistical happenings, a festival of the Supreme Being (God)
was established in 1794. It was also intended to

celebrate the universal religion of nature in which, it was solemnly declared, "the French people recognizes the immortality of the soul". It was as part of a Rousseauist desire to promote social education and community spirit that the festivals were arranged for and by the people

45

which was both "spectator and actor". The com mittee of public instruction of the National Assembly was still responsible for organizing
them.

The aim was to dramatize the break with the

old inegalitarian society and to glorify a new social harmony by emphasizing the republican
"virtues": love of man and nature, of one's

monarchy, was one of "Unity and Indivisibility", a true republican slogan. Conceived as an oldstyle procession, the festival brought together the population in arms, arranged according to sex and age. For hours the procession wended its way through streets decorated with oak-leaves. The first of several places where it halted was on
the site of the Bastille before a fountain of

1 he Festival of Unity
and Indivisibility",
10 August 1793,
Place de la Rvolution,

Paris. Painting

by Pierre Antoine Demachy (1723-1807).

homeland, of friendship and justice, but also hatred for kings and tyrants. Festivals such as those of 14 July and 10 August which commemorated the great revolutionary "days" legitimized the events whereby the Republic had been founded and the break with the past. The festivals held on the tenth day of every ten-day week were republican liturgies which glorified the peoples of ancient Greece and Rome of whom the French people were the heirs. Civic songs and oaths were the order of the day at these festivals which were dedicated to modesty, truth and conjugal love and were supposed to present the new code of morality. The oaths were all more or less in the same vein. This one was pronounced by the people with arms outstretched towards a bust of
Brutus, who had assassinated Julius Caesar to save

Regeneration; the second was before an arch of triumph representing the women of 5 and
6 October 1789 with cannon and laurel crowns.

The third halt was on the Place de la Rvolution

(today Place de la Concorde), where thousands

of birds were released while emblems of the

monarchy and feudalism were thrown on to an immense fire beside an effigy of Liberty carry

ing a pike and wearing a bonnet. Next stop was the Invalides opposite a colossal statue represent

ing the French people, with cudgel and fasces,

slaying the hydra of aristocracy. The fifth and last stop was at the Champ de Mars where, near the altar of the patrie, 200,000 persons took the oath: "Liberty, equality and fraternity, or death". The festival ended after a fraternal banquet on the grass, with the celebration of the victory of the revolutionary armies over the combined armies
of the tyrants.

46

the Roman Republic: "Brutus, we swear to fol low thy example, to maintain the Republic one and indivisible. No more kings, no more impos tors, liberty forever, liberty or death!" The festivals included such popular features as trees of liberty and bonfires, as well as sans culotte symbols such as the Phrygian bonnet and the pike. They proclaimed a political and social messagethe unity of the country. The festival of 10 August 1793 in Paris, commemorating the popular insurrection of 1792 which had brought about the fall of the

In spite of their official aspect and, in some cases, their obscure symbolism, the national festivals were a great popular success, above all in the towns and cities. Opposing superstition with reason, they made it possible to weld

LAURENCE COUDART,

French historian, is a staff

member of the Institute of

together the new society by a civic cult which gradually engrafted itself on to the old practices.
But in rural France the Fte-Dieu, the festival of

the History of the French

Revolution at the Sorbonne,
Paris.

St. John and the patron saints were still celebrat ed and retained the pagan character which they had had long before the Revolution.

PORTRAIT
"The political and journalistic world can boast of very few heroes who compare with Father Damien ofMolokai. It is worthwhile to look for the source of such heroism."
GANDHI

FATHER DAMIEN, CITIZEN OF THE WORLD

1840-1889

I OSEPH de Veuster, who was born in a little

Flemish village in 1840, joined the Society of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary at Louvain, Belgium, when he was twenty. At the age of twenty-three, before he had even completed his
novitiate, he sailed for the Hawaiian Islands
where he was to devote his life to the care of

There was a death in the community almost

every other day. Medical facilities were still

perfunctory. The risk of contracting leprosy increased as the years went by. Damien, who

made little attempt to protect himself, eventually succumbed to it. His own physical suffering was his way of sharing that of the people
around him, and he said that it was nothing compared to the frustration he felt before the

lepers. He died on Molokai Island a quarter of a century later, after contracting leprosy himself. In the mid-nineteenth century, Protestant
and Roman Catholic missions, as well as sizeable minorities of Americans and Chinese, settled
take turns to work on Molokai Island, thus en

among the Kanaka people of the kingdom of Hawaii. This influx of people not only brought
new ideas and resources to the islands, it also led

suring that missionaries would always be present there but would not have to endure a long un broken stay in such a terrible environment.
De Veuster, who had taken the name of

lack of understanding on the part of the religious authorities, not to mention the incessant political and doctrinal quarrels which followed him to his grave.
But news of his struggle spread and his
work became widely appreciated. His fame
crossed the Pacific and he received moral and

to the introduction of diseases such as smallpox,

influenza, cholera, venereal diseases and, worst

Father Damien, immediately volunteered. He

financial support which helped him to care for his lepers and to extract long-awaited sanitary
and humanitarian measures from the authorities.

of all, leprosy. In the hundred years between 1770 and 1870, the Kanaka population, which proved to be terribly vulnerable to these diseases, plum
meted from 250,000 to 50,000.

organized a parish, set up associations, celebrated

the Eucharist, took confession, visited the sick in
their homes and administered the last sacraments.

He developed a popular liturgy for the celebra tion of marriages and for processional use.
He took an interest in the material as well as

The eyes of the world turned in compassion to this remote island. Once synonymous with
horror, the name of Molokai came to evoke a new

Leprosy, in particular, spread like wildfire. In

the 1860s a policy of isolating those afflicted was introduced, not only because of the fear of con
tagion, but because leprosy was such a disfig uring disease that the authorities were afraid of spoiling the archipelago's beautiful, peaceful and prosperous image. Before long, those showing the first symptoms were being systematically rounded up and isolated on a peninsula of Molokai Island. The Catholic missions were especially
concerned about the fate of the lepers. In 1873

the spiritual aspects of life at Molokai and, respectful of Hawaiian customs and lifestyles, did his best to help develop the scarce local resources, notably by putting pressure on the government. In addition to his pastoral duties, Damien performed a great service to the lepers by reminding them of their sense of dignity and treating them as human beings whose lives were important, and whose sufferings, efforts, and
struggle against death had meaning and nobility.

challenge for humanitythat of vanquishing leprosy while respecting the dignity of those afflicted with it. Damien became the symbol of this challenge.
In 1889, the year of Father Damien's death,

a fund was established in his memory in London, under the patronage of the Prince of Wales. The
inauguration of the fund, the forerunner of the British Leprosy Relief Association (LEPRA), was

soon followed by many other initiatives elsewhere

in the world.

it was decided that four young priests would

47

As promised, we are
reinstating our
"Letters to the Editor"

column featuring
readers' comments,

questions and criticisms.

Most of this month's

mailbag is concerned
with reactions to the

Courier's new format.

Letters to the Editor

Good, but could do better

Was it really necessary?

I have been a subscriber to the

Herder's true message

As editor and translator in France of

I'm all in favour of the new-style Unesco Couner. Congratulations on

One of the lessons of history has been that too much haste in labelling
a standpoint or a literature as univer

Unesco Courier since 1973. It's my

the works of Herder, I would like to

a fine piece of work. The June

number on the bicentenary of the
French Revolution was most interes

favourite magazine because it unites

all mankind without taking sides or

qualify Alain Flnkielkraut's argument In his article "Sieys, Herder, Goethe: Universality and national identity" in your June 1989 issue.
The conflict between the universal

sal soon leads to imperialism...

Mr. Finkielkraut's attack on Herder

Imposing political barriers. I would

not have altered the format, although

ting. I eagerly await future issues and

urge you to be even more innovative.
Tahraoui Farid

Is contrived, to say the least. Herder,

no doubt you Introduced the chan ges in response to views expressed by

who fought all his life against illusions of universality (while defending, with
a keen critical sense, a true universa

and the specific is very ancient. The

Mulhouse (France)

your vast and diverse readership.

But what is the point of all these

eighteenth century, through the phi

losophes, the French Revolution and
German "idealist" philosophy, revi ved these concepts and made an
issue of them. Alain Finklelkraut relies

lity), who sought the "progress of

humanity" (and not, consequently, that of any particular people), would
never have wished to "place all uni
versal values in the dock and have

An addition to my library

full-page Illustrations? And won't the

de-luxe presentation mean a steep
price rise, which may put off poten tial readers from social groups which
should be able to benefit from the

Congratulations on your June Issue,

1789: An idea that changed the
world. The texts, Illustrations, even

heavily on these august sources for

his exposition.

the paper on which they are printed,

are all very fine. This Issue is a wel come addition to my library.
Pierre Gesneau

them

tried

and

condemned

by

magazine?
All the same, I remain a faithful

He praises the merits of universal literature dear to Goethe, and goes

human diversity"...

He simply saw, as a forerunner of

Orleans (France)

Courier reader. I'll just have to get

used to the new format.
Ren Rousseau

out of his way to vilify Herder,... who

a sociology to which Mr. Finkielkraut perhaps attaches little Importance,

that to leave the specific is not to be transported directly Into the univer sal. He certainly did not confuse what
is with what should be. He unders

is guilty in his eyes of all kinds of par

ticularisms and nationalisms, In short

The right track

Bagneux (France)

As a regular subscriber since 1961,

it Is with some misgivings that I wai
ted to see what the new-format Unesco Courier would look like. I was

of all kinds of prejudices.

It is by no means certain, particu

No to commercial pressures I am disappointed by the new for mula: it's only a copy, on heavier

larly in the eighteenth century, and

particularly afraid that advertising

matter would intrude on to your
pages.

particularly in the case of Herder, a great translator in all senses of the

word, that frontiers were ever as

tood that the universal only comes

about, ideally and gradually, when each one of us each people, each
individualcan first be himself or her

paper, of many other magazines on the market. I preferred the old for
mat, perhaps because it was slightly
old-fashioned, whence its originality.

impenetrable as all that. There are

cross-currents, convergences and
conflicts between cultures; they are

But the magazine has managed to

self, with his or her own language

and history, that universal liberty can

stay on the right track. Congratula

tions on the quality of the layout and

When purely

dealing

with

universal

never truly isolatedIn a word, they

communicate.

not be the product of force or any

form of oppression...

cultures, it's a shame to give in to the commercial considerations which have imposed a dictatorship on
magazines in the last few years. I have already cancelled my subs

the judicious choice of subjectmatter. I hope you will continue to follow this path.
Gilbert Gassmann

If nineteenth-century philosophy

Doubtless It was a good rhetorical ploy for Alain Finkielkraut to transmit his message of universal by means of historical examples. But that is no reason why his examples should not be relevant. The injustice he commits with
truth.
Pierre Pnisson
Paris

contributed anything to this debate it was probably to substitute for the

crude dash between the universal

Pines (France)

cription to one leading weekly after

it bowed to commercial Imperatives

and the specific a process of reflec

tion on the mingling of cultures, whether these presuppose a latent

in its presentation. I'm reserving jud gement as far as the Courier is con cerned until my current subscription
expires.
Lucette Perrin

regard to

Herder, through

universality (K.O. Apel), or whether

they discover and produce it (Jrgen
Habermas).

Ignorance, contravenes his desire for

Decazeville (France)

\ s**

!Rp

'Bleu Soleil'

I am taking advantage of your appeal

for readers' letters to draw attention to an association named "Bleu Soleil" Towards a better future

UNICEF

which was founded in 1988 with the

I am retired, and after taking your

magazine for several years I still read
the articles with as much interest as

aim of rediscovering the wealth of

human creativity, in other words the

ever. Their universality will, I hope, help to bring peoples closer together
and build a better future for
mankind.
Jacques Pare Neuilly-en-Thelle (France)

greetings cards

spiritual, cultural and human values

preserved by traditional societies.
The association seeks to reveal to

the countries of Europe and else

where, within the context of cultur

al,

scientific

and

humanitarian
"North" and

contacts

between

"South",

authentic

musicians,

Time for a change

Artists and museums around the world have again

dancers, poets, writers, painters and

other creators of unpublished works
of great value.
Four projects are already under way. They are "Nianadi", a show
which was cancelled in 1989 for lack

Bravo for the magazine's "shake-up"! I much appreciate the new presenta
tion, illustrations and additional infor
mation for the reader.

contributed an attractive range of designs and

paintings to this year's UNICEF greetings cards. The 1989 selection features a series of large-format
cards with reproductions of the works of modern

I think the time had come for a

change, and you clearly agree with

me. The Courier's Interest lies in the

masters such as Henri Matisse, Georges Braque,

Vincent Van Gogh and Pierre Bonnard. Proceeds from sales help UNICEF (the United

of funds but which will be performed

in the summer of 1 990; an exhibition

fact that it offers reflections on a spe

cific question from people of different nationalities and widely different cul tural backgrounds.
A reader

of work by a Nicaraguan painter;

another exhibition, on the

Nations Children's Fund) to finance its programmes

for bringing improved health care, nutrition, edu

Apocalypse and the Tarot of Mar

seilles, by a French poet who has lived

for the last 20 years in Africa; and a

(France)

cation and sanitation to millions of needy children

in the developing countries of Africa, Asia and La tin America. In the last 35 years, around 200 mil

grant to enable a brilliant self-taught

Malian Tuareg researcher to com

World problems today

and tomorrow

plete and publish his research into the

Tuareg dialects of the Adrar des
Ifhoras mountains in Mali.

lion dollars have been raised in this way. For only

one dollar, 9 children can be vaccinated against measles, or 1 3 against polio, or 30 against tuber

Congratulations on your choice of

themes, especially that of the family

(July 1 989). However, it seems to me

If "Bleu Soleil" is now established and has done a certain amount of

that the human race is beginning to

collapse under the weight of its own
numbers, and I feel that the conflict

culosis, or 50 against diptheria, whooping cough

and tetanus. One dollar will also buy schoolbooks for 10 children, or 6 packets of lettuce seeds, or a stethoscope to monitor the foetal heartbeat.

promotion, it is essentially due to the

personal financial contribution of its

president, to a few subscriptions and to the voluntary support of a hand

between wanting more children and limiting the birthrate, at the national and the world level, s a subject that needs covering in greater depth. Another important theme which
the Unesco Courier could tackle as

The greetings cards and other stationery,

diaries and gifts are available at UNICEF sales

ful of friends. This is, I think, proof

of the serious approach and determi

nation of this young association.

"Bleu Soleil" must find financial

points, often to be found in banks and post offices as well as in shops and stores throughout the
world. A free catalogue and further information

support if It Is to carry out important projects to inform the public of the

part of its mission is the development of a society based on the best kind
of education and science, human

about the work of the organization can be ob

tained from the United Kingdom Committee for
UNICEF, 55 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3NB

need for cultural and scientific rap prochement between men, in a spirit
of human solidarity. Let us not forget the prophetic words of Amadou
goes up in flames."
Guy Roque

rights, and peace. This is perhaps a

Utopian dream, but it would set a

practical goal for our children.

Let me express my thanks for your
worldwide action.
Jean-Michel Delvat

Tel. (01) 405 5592.

Hampate B:

"When an old man dies, a library

Grand-Quevilly (France)

Marseilles (France)

49

PHOTO CREDITS
Cover, pages 3 (above left), 8, 38 (above
& below), 40 (above), 41 (above): L.

Unesco Courier Index 1989

Giraudou Explorer, Paris. Back cover:

P. Cheuva Explorer, Paris. Page 2:

Irne Dacunha, Lausanne. Page 3 (above

right): Ren Burri Magnum, Paris. Page

5: Michel Barer Rapho, Paris; (inset):

Hartwell Sygma, Paris. Pages 10-11: Hug Explorer, Paris. Pages 12-13 (above): Le Naviose CampagneCampagne, Paris. Page Unesco/Georges Servar; 13 (above): (below):

January
THE FRAGILE FOREST. The sacred tree (J. Brosse). Why we need forests. The relentless march of deforestation;

Monique Pietri, Paris. Page 14 (above): C.

Lenars Explorer, Paris; (below left):

Vuillomener Rapho, Paris; (below

Towards a Green Revolution in forestry; The fuelwood crisis (S. Postel and L. Heise). Arboreal oddities. Farming the
forest (M. Hadley). Sustainable use of tropical forests (I. Muul). The Christianization of Kievan Russia: Millennium celebrations (Metropolitan Juvenaly).

right): Mike Yamashita Rapho, Paris.

Page 15 (above right): H. Silvester

Rapho, Paris; (below left): E. Linder Rnpho, Paris. Pages 16-17: Ousseynou
Sarr, Paris. Page 18: Le Soleil, Dakar.

February
INDIA. 5,000 years of Indian culture (V.S. Naravane). Makers of modern India (S. Gopal). Indian cinema (K. Mohamed). A new policy for education (A. Bordia). India's lifeline (A. Jung). Rural development (S.B. Roy). The philosophical tradition. Fairs and festivals. The scientific legacy. Project Tiger (R. Singh). The anger of the sea-goddess (T.S. Pillai).
March

Page 19: ERIK, Paris. Pages 20 (above),

21 (above, centre & below): Ch. Gibier

Cedus, Paris. Page 20 (below left &

right): J. Oster Muse de l'Homme,

Paris. Pages 22-23: Nacho Lopez,

Mexico. Pages 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31:
Yoshishihiko Shinada, from The Great

Monastery ofthe East. The drawing ofwater: Description ofthe penitential gathering ofthe
second month at the Pavilion of the Second

A SILKEN BOND BETWEEN EAST AND WEST (A.H. Dani). Mihai Eminescu: Romania's national poet. Decoding Hafez' mystic message (R. Feiz). Hafez and the golden age of Persian literature (C.-H. de Fouchcour). The once and future revolution (M. Agulhon). The mermaid of the Dniester (O. Petrash). Pollution unlimited (F. Bequette). Rediscovering "The Islands of the Moon" (A. Libioulle). Educational planners go back to school.

Moon,

by

Ohga Tetsuo,
APN,
and I.

Shgakhan,
Page

April CAMES AND THE PORTUGUESE VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY. The dawn of a new age (L.F. Barreto). Of
caravels and cartographers... (L. de Albuquerque). Japan in early Portuguese maps (A.P. Marques). Luis de Cames, Portugal's great epic poet (V. Graa Moura). The Lusiads (E. Loureno). Cames and Brazil (J. de Souza Montello). Rivalry in the Red Sea (Ibn Iyas). The Portuguese in India (J. Correia Afonso). Portuguese art in the maritime era (R. de Faria
D. Moreira). Fernando Pessoa and the spirit of discovery (JA. Seabra).

Tokyo, 1985. Pages 32-33, 36 (above):

Y.Somov

Paris.
Zotov

34:

Y. Kaver APN, Paris. Page 35 (left):

B. Kavashkin APN,

Moscow; (right): Y. Somov APN,

Moscow. Pages 36-37: Izdatelstvo
Moscow

May
MODERN MANUSCRIPTS. The written word... (L.S. Senghor) ... A fragile heritage (JC. Langlois). Libraries to the rescue (G. Cartier). Microwaves that save manuscripts (D. Sergent). France's Bibliothque Nationale, a library in action (F. Callu). From the world's archives. The quest for authenticity (G. Tavani). The Archives Collection, a laboratory for the future (A. Segala). Literary detection and Latin American writing (F. Ainsa). The birth of a language (R.B. Saguier). A thousand years of Catalan history (F. Vallverd), Romanesque treasures of Catalonia (E. Carbonell i Esteller). Gaudi
and Dal, the art of excess (D. Giralt-Miracle).

Izobrazitelnoe

Iskusstvo,

/Museum of Russian Art, Leningrad.

Pages 38 (centre), 40-41 (below): O. Pighetti Explorer, Paris. Page 39:

Samuel Costa Explorer, Paris. Pages 42-43, 44 (above), 45 (above), 46: Bulloz, Muse Carnavalet, Paris. Page 44 (below): Bulloz, Bibliothque
Nationale, Paris. Page 45 (below): Bulloz, Paris. Page 47: The Friends of
Father Damien, Brussels.

June
1789: AN IDEA THAT CHANGED THE WORLD. Interview with Franois Mitterrand, President of the French

Republic. The Republic's citizens of honour (E. Naraghi). Tom Paine: the antimonarchist who tried to save a king (J. Lessay). In the Antilles, "Liberty for All" (Y. Benot). The eagle and the sphinx: Bonaparte in Egypt (M. Hussein). Sieys, Herder, Goethe: universality and national identity (A. Finkielkraut). The Republican dream (Simn Bolvar). Poetry, freedom and revolution (S.S. Averintsev). Chomin: the Rousseau of the East (Shin'ya Ida). China: rethinking the Revolution (Zhilian Zhang). The spirit of '89 (T. Ben Jelloun). An idea and its destiny (F. Furet).

July
THE FAMILY. Interview with Jorge Amado. Nineteenth-century Russia: hearth, home and rural community (H. YvertJalu). Ancient China: the empire of the ancestors (Qi Yanfen). Africa: lines of descent (M.B. Priso). The Middle East and North Africa: the future of the family. The changing Japanese family (Kurimoto Kazuo). Europe: Marina, Sarah, Michel and Jean (A. Michel). Latin America: the women of Arembepe (M. de Athayde Figueiredo and D. Prado). Quebec: new family structures (F. Descarries and C. Corbeil). A visit to an Uzbek family (C. Fournier). Africa's "wonder weed".

August
STREETSCAPES. Interview with Richard Attenborough. Berlin: the Friedrichstrasse, a link in the chain of history (C. Mengin). Tokyo: a city of towers and traditions (S. Zarmati). Bogota: a trip along the Sptima (A. Berty). Abidjan: a colourful kaleidoscope (P. Haeringer). Moscow: Gorky Street, fifty years of change (A. Kopp). Cairo: in the heart of an ancient capital (A. Bonnamy). Houston: highways in the city (B. Ouvry-Vial). Beijing: the street of the glazed tile factory (P. Clement). Under the roofs of Paris (A.-M. Chatelet). Families of the world (H. Tremblay). International
co-operation in space (D. Spurgeon).

September
GREAT EPICS. Interview with Jean-Claude Carrire: the Mahabharata, Great History of Mankind. The poet's tale (M. Hussein). Gilgamesh, the king who did not wish to die (J. Bottro). Aeneas, Rome's man of destiny (J. -P. Brisson). The Epic of the Kings (N. Tadjadod). llya the invincible (H. Yvert-Jalu). The Secret History of the Mongols (S. Bira). The Mahvamsa, Sri Lanka's non-stop epic (A.W.P. Gurug). Shaka Zulu, a living legend (K.I. Bosco). Knights of the Far
West (G.N. Granville). Mapping the human genome (J. Richardson).
October

STRANGERS ON THE SCREEN. Interview with Jean Lacouture: Champollion, a heio of the Enlightenment. Creatures

The editors wish

to thank

from inner space (C. Aziza). Macunama, the eternal outsider (A. Rodrigues). Germans screened through French eyes (R. Prdal). An Orient of myth and mystery (A. Fahdel). Tristan and Pavlova through the looking glass (M. Fellous).
Behind the veil (A. Djebar). Charlie Chaplin, stranger and brother (M. Oms). "Slaves of one man": the American Indian

Ms. Myriam Rosen

for her valuable contribution to the

in 17th- and 18th-century French literature (C. de Grandpr). Understanding global change (A.M. Clayson).
November

preparation of our
October issue,

A MATHEMATICAL MYSTERY TOUR. Interview with Federico Mayor, Director-General of Unesco. Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia: prime numbers 0- Ritter). India: Lilavati, gracious lady of arithmetic (F. Zimmermann). China: H in the sky (J.-C. Martzloff). Ancient Greece: the Odyssey of reason (B. Vitrac). The Arab world: where geometry and algebra intersect (R. Rashed). From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment: the roots of modern maths (C. Goldstein and J. Gray). Gabriela Mistral, poet and humanist. An Academy of Sciences for the Third World (A.M. Faruqui).
December

Strangers on the
Screen.
50

HIGH DAYS AND HOLIDAYS. Interview with Najib Mahfouz. The festive spirit (J- Duvignaud). Mock lion and real heroes (M. Seek). Skeletons at the feast (J. Prez Siller). The Pavilion of the Second Moon (L. Caillet). Farewell to winter (H. Yvert-Jalu). Samba time! (S. Alves Teixeira). Liberty, Equality, Festivity! (L. Coudart). Father Damien,
citizen of the world.

The Mnesco

^aJ^COURlER
42nd YEAR

THE LIBRARY

LIBRARIES

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published in the magazine do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by Unesco or the United Nations The Unesco Courier is produced in microform {microfilm and/or microfiche) by: (1) Unesco, 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Pans, (2) University Microfilms (Xerox), Ann Arbor. Michigan 48100. US A , (3) N C R Microcard Edition, Indian
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DEPOT LEGAL : Cl

DCEMBRE *989

Photocomposition

The Unesco Courier

Photogravure impression Maury Imprimeur S A , 2 t route d-'Etampes,

45330 Malesherbes

ISSN 0041-5278

NO 12

1989

OPI -89

1 -475 A

ZhouaV

This issue comprises 54 pages and a 4-page advertising insert between pages 10-11 and 42-43

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