8 Bożena Gierek features found both in national history and, above all, in folk culture” (1974: 314). The first trend favors cultural integration and unification of the world, spreading out even to primitive communities. The other one prevents national and local cultures from uniformization and globalization (cf. Giddens [1990] 1991: 65). It is supported by the old tradition, understood as material and nonmaterial heritage from the past transmitted from generation to generation and evaluated by transmitters (cf. Szacki [1971] 2001, Burszta 1974, Shils 1981), as well as by new—invented or re-invented—tradition (cf. Hobsbawm & Ranger [1983] 1992). Evaluation conveys reflexivity on the heritage placed in the time-space context, retaining the link between the past, the present, and the future. Because of the acceleration of modernity, which brought “disembedding mechanisms” into societies, time and space have been separated and stretched. That stretching process is linked with globalization, which influences worldwide social relations in such a way that events in one locale are shaped by those occurring in the great distance, and vice versa. Modernity, as a contrast to tradition, is also a threat to it. Many social changes, pertaining to “pace of change,” “scope of change,” and “nature of modern institutions,” have occurred in the previous centuries. However, it is impossible to cut off completely “the continuities between the traditional and the modern,” and therefore even in the most modernized societies tradition has its place and role to play (Giddens [1990] 1991, [1991] 1992). First of all, tradition brings people together—it gives them the feeling of communitas (cf. Durkheim [1912] 2010; Turner [1969] 2017: Chs. 3–4; [1974] 1975: Ch. 1; 1982a). It makes them proud of it (cf. Mielicka 2009: 11) and makes them want to share it with others. The feast used to be considered “the highlight of the social life, not only from the religious but also from the economic point of view” (Caillois [1939] 1972: 160), because it was linked with the circulation of accumulated goods, and with fairs that were a platform for their distribution. The community rejoiced at everything that represented its prosperity, which was to ensure the future of its members. With time, the distribution of goods was replaced by their exchange and later on by their selling. Nowadays, especially in so-called developed countries, we encounter numerous fairs organized on various occasions, but at such fairs goods are exclusively sold. Distribution or exchange no longer takes place there, even in the villages, and those who buy them are mostly outsiders. Fairs can be perceived as an economic, but also cultural, phenomenon, and can be an inseparable element of a feast (cf. Grad 2004: 25–34).
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