"How to better protect and inherit our traditional festivals, how to give full play to the positive role of traditional festival culture in the current national and social construction process, and innovate and develop the festival culture and custom system, is an urgent problem to be solved." said Wang Xuedian, member of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC and Chief Editor of the Journal of Literature, History and Philosophy. He called for the reconstruction of the traditional Chinese festival system as a carrier to cultivate cultural confidence.
Wang Xuedian said that Chinese traditional festivals, condensed with profound national spirit and national sentiment, are the important part of Chinese excellent traditional culture. However, due to the impact of industrialization, urbanization, commercialization and other factors, traditional festivals have become weaker and weaker. At the same time, Western festivals have become popular after their introduction. Wang Xuedian suggested that the relationship between Chinese and western festivals and the construction of the current festival system should be properly handled. The connotation of western festivals could be absorbed and integrated, and western festivals could be gradually replaced by characters, legends and customs rich in Chinese traditional cultural information, so that these festivals could be linked with Chinese tradition and history just like the Dragon Boat Festival.
“The birthday of Mencius can be set as Chinese mother's day to replace the Western mother's day. Mencius is a great thinker, and the story of "Three Moves by Mencius' Mother" is well known by the majority of Chinese people, which reflects the great maternal personality of Mencius. Taking the mother of Mencius as the image and the birthday of Mencius as the festival can not only express the respect for mother, but also highlight the connotation and characteristics of traditional Chinese culture.” said Wang.
Wang Xuedian believes that the reason why a specific date is selected as a festival is either an important time node or closely related to major historical events and important historical figures. There are other considerations when September 10 is designated as teachers' day, but the biggest problem is that it has no specific historical and cultural connotations.
"Confucius is not only the most representative cultural symbol of Chinese civilization, but also the greatest educator in the world and the most influential teacher in the history of mankind. He initiated private school and cultivated many famous figures in history. His educational concept of "education without discrimination" is still suitable for today’s education. Therefore, Confucius is a unique symbol and resource of Chinese culture and education, and taking Confucius' birthday as teacher's day has profound cultural connotation and symbolic significance.”
While reconstructing the traditional festival system, it is necessary to carry forward the inherent traditional festivals. In recent years, due to urban management and ecological protection and other reasons, fireworks are banned in some areas during the Spring Festival, and many people complain that the atmosphere of the Spring Festival is getting weaker and weaker. Therefore, Wang Xuedian specially submitted a proposal calling for attention to the importance of the Spring Festival and the important functions of fireworks and firecrackers in creating and inheriting the spring festival culture.
He suggested that all local governments should not adopt the policy of cutting at one stroke in dealing with fireworks and firecrackers. The governments thelet the grass-roots governments, communities and streets as the main body to set off fireworks, or set up centralized fireworks and firecrackers places for residents to use, so as to meet the psychological needs of the general public and inherit and strengthen the traditional culture of the lunar new year.
In order to meet the psychological needs of the general public and inherit and strengthen the traditional culture of the Spring Festival, local governments, community commission and the street office, should be the main body to set off fireworks, or set up centralized fireworks and firecrackers for residents to use.
"At the same time, we should also use high-tech and new materials to develop environmentally friendly alternatives to firecrackers, so that firecrackers can be set off rationally, which can not only meet the needs of the masses, but also ensure that pollution and harm caused by firecrackers are avoided."
