Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2007 | Page 56

life

ANTIQUES

Festivals
To Bestival
By Phillip Hoare

Having just had a most
successful music festival
here on the Isle of Wight,
I thought it would be
appropriate to talk about
festivals in general and their
interesting origins, from
Pagan Rites and Egyptian
Festivals to the Great
Exhibition of 1851 and the
music festivals of today.
All festivals serve an important
purpose, they are a common
ground on which people can
meet to celebrate and indulge
in cultures and traditions
through art and creativity. Some
festivals have a strong religious
context, the word Festival
comes from Feste meaning
‘Feast’. English festival origins
are pagan and early rituals
celebrated nature and the
fertility of the earth. In ancient
Egypt many festivals had a
Religious base and at what time
of year the “feast” occurred was
determined by lunar cycles or
the Egyptian calendar. Japan
abounds in unique festivals, in
every season, all-year-round.

Each of its festivals, rooted in
religious customs, agricultural
practices or the re-enactment
of historical events, reflects
its particular locale's history
and traditional culture. And
each festival is closely linked
with traditional arts. In ancient
Greece Dionysian rituals were
accompanied by the ingestion
of hallucinogenic mushrooms
not dissimilar to those taken in
the 60’s when Timothy Leary
coined the infamous phrase
“Turn on, tune in, drop out…”
In the UK this summer there
are many music festivals, one
in particular has its roots firmly
wedged in myth, legend and
folklore - Glastonbury, which
takes place in the mystical
"Vale of Avalon". The area has
a number of mythological and
spiritual traditions including
links with Joseph of Arimathea
who is said to have bought the
Holy Grail to Glastonbury and
buried it under a spring and
King Arthur whose tomb was
supposedly found by Monks
at Glastonbury Abbey! Several
ley lines are said to converge
under the festival site which

Photo below: Glastonbury in all its glory

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