Moralny sens świętowania

Abstract

The article aims at showing the moral meaning of celebrating a holiday in the context of cultural conditionings in order to show against this background – in the future – the specificity of Christian celebrations, whose centre is Sunday. Showing the holiday and celebration of it as a cultural phenomenon, the article presents their most important elements: memory, community, experiencing the sacrum and ritual. The holiday appears as a human need; it is an opportunity to become diverted from what is everyday and usual. The ways of celebrating play an important role in forming the identity of the given community. This is why a change in the model of celebrating is a fine indicator of moral-social changes, among others due to the fact that changes in the way of celebrating are closely connected with changes in defined systems of values, and first of all in the attitude towards the sacrum. In this context the author presents the most important modern conditionings of the holiday, referring first of all to the process of secularisation and de-sacralisation. A lot points to the fact that the essence of celebrating in its religious dimension, with respect to the sacrum and the transcendental dimension of human existence, is more and more radically questioned. The category of free time seems to replace the category of holiday. Celebrating is nowadays threatened by the temptation of individualism and by giving absolute value to freedom. The holiday has been reduced to “having one’s own free time”, and in this way it is losing its sacred and special character with respect to one’s whole life. A loss of the meaning of life has its consequences in losing the meaning of celebration. The fundamental source of losing a deeper meaning of celebration is, above all, the contemporary secularism and de-sacralisation of life that is connected with it; de-sacralisation of both one’s personal life, and even to a greater degree – of his social life. The negative role of the media is pointed to in desacralisation of the ways of celebrating, and especially in its commercialisation and in propagating new pseudo-holidays. According to the author, the very description of the holiday and of celebrating it leads to showing its connection with the moral dimension of human life. This concerns not only the moral duty to celebrate, but it also stresses the fact that owing to celebrating holidays man’s moral life opens to the transcendent dimension, to sanctity and to being sanctified. This is why the first task that moral theology faces today is to show the position of the holiday in the whole of Christian life in a harmonious way. The true meaning of freedom within the frames of celebrating must be shown today. It is freedom with a religious character, it is a gift of freedom. The holiday is connected with “freedom to”, freedom that is put into effect by way of love. Owing to celebrating man discovers that everything in his life is a gift, for which he learns to thank God and people. The holiday, so closely connected with the memory about and with remembering people and events, allows one to understand, how important a sign of love just that memory is: remembering – and on the sacramental plane also making it present – an event that in an essential way gives a meaning to our existence and at the same time directs it. This memory is a necessary condition for love, but a full love never ends with it, but is complemented with thanksgiving. The holiday and celebration are in fact unthinkable without that attitude of love that is expressed in gratitude and thanksgiving. The communal character of the holiday is especially important for a moral life. It is something more than experiencing it in community. Celebration is a chance to confirm the existing human community and it deepens that community. Hence the holiday has an important meaning for forming the common good of the given community. While consolidating human solidarity, it facilitates dialogue and understanding in all other domains of life. In this context attention is drawn to the pedagogical possibilities that celebrating brings with itself. “Holiday liturgy”, rich in symbols and in relations between people, may be an unusually important factor in the formation of the new generation, first of all by permeating it with the atmosphere of community; young people almost unwittingly receive the message that is carried with the holiday. A person’s full development and deepening of the community form the moral meaning of the holiday.