The liberal use of Christian symbols at community celebrations was an affront to the non-Christian residents, who felt that they could not participate equally and felt less favored.
People may need something to celebrate. They need a context in which to celebrate things. They need something that fills the void that's left by the bankruptcy of religion and so forth.
Spring and summer in Pittsburgh mean outdoor festivals.
A relatively primitive village in which there are still real feasts, common artistic shared expressions, and no literacy at all is more advanced culturally and more healthy mentally than our educated, newspaper-reading radio-listening culture.
we Irish don't really need thousands of people surging behind a big brass band to have a parade. One guitar player and a few people whistling will do the job.
One other fact is significant: the domestic feasts and sacrifices of single families, which in David's time must still have been general, gradually declined and lost their importance as social circles widened and life became more public.
I used to come to the gay pride parades in New York. I've been to a few down in Miami Beach, if memory serves.
I grew up in a chawl where the ganpati festival is celebrated in a big way.
