Lecture 12. Fairs & Festivals

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created by:

Itohan Osayimwese


from the module:

Technologies of Movement and Communication

For much of human history, festivals, ceremonies, rituals, and other modes of spectacle have served as powerful media to create and communicate collective and individual identities. These festivals have taken on a variety of forms—from official spectacles to unsanctioned, subversive performances, religious ceremonies to events with a commercial character, occasions that rallied the masses to smaller, more selective affairs, regular to occasional and pop-up episodes. Nevertheless, all of these events had a public character that distinguished them. This lecture introduces three festivals in two regions: Title Feasts in Pohnpei, Micronesia; and Jonkonnu in Jamaica and the world-renowned Carnival as well as the less-known Hosay Festival in Trinidad. Our discussion of these festivals will highlight architecture’s diverse modes of contributing to social life. Architecture functioned on at least three levels in festivals: a) buildings were designed to serve as venues for festivals and used as intended, b) existing spaces were appropriated by festival participants and took on a new character and function in the process, or c) participants incorporated architectural objects into festivals as part of complex symbolic systems. Approaching festivals from a global history perspective also provides an opportunity to critically consider assumptions about periodization that still dominate architectural history. Rather, as these examples show, it may not be possible to definitively date all festival practices but they can still serve as productive case studies for understanding architecture as a global endeavor.

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