Diverse Cultural Perspectives - Essay Sample

Introduction

Cultural festivals are celebrations held by particular communities to acknowledge their various traditions. Divergence among these traditions is mainly influenced by age, language, religion, and race. Traditional cultural heritage is passed from one generation to another in several ways. Intangible cultural heritage is done through training, while the tangible heritage can be through physical interaction with objects and symbols (Finkel & Platt, 2020). One of the main environments to experience tangible heritage is through the attendance of cultural festivals to learn the integrals of such festivals and how they impact traditions.

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Harambee Festival

Aimed at unifying and educating all cultures, social groups, and generations, the Harambee Festival is a cultural event held annually in Dallas, Texas. It is described as a community-based event formed by community-minded citizens to create a positive cultural experience for people of all ages. The name is a Swahili word that originates from Kenya in East Africa, meaning "Let's pull together." The idea behind it was to create a festival to counter the popular Halloween Festival and reduce monopoly. My long desire to experience the merry feeling of this occasion would only be satisfied by my attendance to the glorious occasion. The event showed outstanding and breathtaking dressing codes both by the guests and entertainers. The attendants had on beautiful African-themed dressing complemented by unique African jewelry (Finkel & Platt, 2020). There were traditional dance groups with a difference age, dressed in African regalia. Besides that, different open workshops for African foods and art where guests would view and get educated more about African traditions. Some conventional artists used native instruments such as the marimba, kora, balafon, and djembe for musical entertainers. Some of them were dressed in the colors of the flags of the countries they were representing. Even with huge differences in language, the guests seemed to feel and enjoy the different music genres. Craftsmen such as painting artists and weavers displayed their work in the workshops for the exhibition.

The unison and togetherness, which is the main meaning of the festival's name, was evident in the bright smiles on the people's faces while singing along or dancing to the music. Since the Harambee Festival is made for all ages, children had also been catered for. There were amusement sections, such as bouncing castles, ball pits, and multi-tiered climbing structures. I initially had an impression that these were acts of courtesy and unity among the African-Americans; little did I know the festival was a whole lot of package. People seemed to forget their difference in native countries and had a good time together exploiting all fan there can be in cultural diversity all fantasy and glamorous. After more profound interaction with the people about the festival and the cultural practices displayed, I learned that people would later have a shouting session, "Harambee" seven times continuously at the end of the event to mark an ultimate climax.

It is also celebrated in the Martin Luther King Jr community center to appreciate and commemorate another African-American activist's life (Finkel & Platt, 2020). Interestingly, there were painting portraits of such heroes on display in the event’s exhibition. The event allows organizations, churches, companies, or schools to improve their knowledge of African history. The Harambee Festival has not experienced outside influence as it strictly only authorizes African traditions. People from other parts of the world are only allowed to view the practices but not bring their own to display in this event. The current practices in the event have not changed much as the guidelines are strict and clear. Historically, the event was only about showcasing diverse cultures, but vendors were later allowed to use it as a platform to market their merchandise. The organizers also started including annual themes to highlight the main cause of the event.

Secondary Cultural Events

The National Arts Festival is also an annual festival that happens in Makhanda, South Africa. New Zealand also boasts of their Pasifika Festival held in Auckland's Western Springs Park to celebrate the Pacific Island communities' cultural diversity such as Fiji, Tonga, Kiribati, and Tahiti. Being the most significant cultural event in the Southern Pacific, the event hosts close to 200,000 people from different countries. The festival is held in March with a wide range of entertainment detail. Hundreds of artists perform in eleven different stages where traditional dishes are displayed. It incorporates fashion shows and opera and theatre performances. Due to its growth, the festival introduced awards to be won on different categories. It also has stalls where vendors and artisans can display and exhibit their merchandise, respectively. Different participants represent their communities with traditional dressing and decoration (Cudny & Maiava, 2016). Musicians and dancers also use native instruments to entertain the crowds. The rules and guidelines of this event, the tourism ministry controlling it, are strict and followed to the latter. The traditional cuisines offered are inspected thoroughly, and the menu is approved for each vendor.

The National Arts Festival in South Africa is no different. It provides an array of entertainment divided into two segments, the Main Program and the Fringe Program (Sizemore, 2013). Like the Pasifika Festival, performances are done in over 60 different venues comprising social places such as schools, churches, theatres, and halls. The event includes historical tours in the city, visual art exhibitions, local cuisine workshops, music and dance, theatre, and comedy. This festival has other sub-festivals and events that make it livelier as is the Thinkfest, where debates and seminars are held to discuss heritage (Crawford et al., 2017). A committee is formed to preside over the event and make the required adjustments where applicable. It also has categorized awards to be contested for by the participants in the event.

Conclusion

The festivals serve a big role in their respective countries and communities of origin. They relieve the guests of their typical day stresses to improve their positivity. This creates a bond of love with a good example of the 11 participating pacific communities in the Pasifika Festival (Hernández et al., 2018). They also teach new generations to appreciate their customs, morals, beliefs, and attitude. Festivals also improve economic activity as it enables direct or indirect employment of locals. These two secondary events coincide with the Harambee Festival in multiple concepts. All of them serve the same communal purpose with the same methods and programs. The main agenda running across all of them is to appreciate traditional practices such as food, music, dance, decorations, and regalia.

Although these festivals share common beliefs with completely different countries of origin, all cultures confine in values and norms to suffuse social coexistence. Civilization and nationalism also control every human behavior; thus, these festivals having resemblance. Since culture is defined as the way humans understand themselves individually or socially, they cannot be separated from them. Our relations in religion, language, rituals, behavior, and appearance define us and therefore have to be retained as they are all deeply interconnected. Cultural diversity has been recognized as the common heritage of humanity, and its insurance has been proven to be inextricable from human dignity.

References

Crawford, T., Candlin, S., & Roger, P. (2017). New perspectives on understanding cultural diversity in nurse–patient communication. Collegian, 24(1), 63-69.

Cudny, W., & Maiava, O. (2016). Pasifika Festival w Auckland i Festiwal Lódz Czterech Kultur jako czynniki zachowania i promowania wielokulturowego dziedzictwa w miastach. Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Sklodowska, sectio B–Geographia, Geologia, Mineralogia et Petrographia, 71(2).

Finkel, R., & Platt, L. (2020). Cultural festivals and the city. Geography Compass, e12498.

Hernández J. M., Duarte, P. A., & Folgado-Fernández, J. A. (2018). The contribution of cultural events to the formation of the cognitive and affective images of a tourist destination. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 8, 170-178.

Sizemore, A. (2013). South Africa's National Arts Festival.