Dancing in the Streets

Book: Barbara Ehrenreich. Dancing in the Streets. A history of collective joy

Discussed by Alan Moore at http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2007/07/dancing-in-the-.html

Citation

Carnaval is a festival that really is not given to the people, but one that people give to themselves

- Goethe

"At some point, in town after town throughout the northern Christian world, the music stops. Canival customes are put away or sold; dramas that once engaged a town's entire population are cancelled; festive rituals are forgotten or preserved only in tame and truncated form, the estatic possibility, which had forst been driven from the sacred precincts of the church, was now harried from the streets and public squares

The loss, to ordinary people, of so many recreations and festivals is incalcuable, and we, who live in a culture almost devoid of opportunities either to "lose ourselves" in communal festivities or to distinguish ourselves in any arena outside of work, are in no position to fathom it." (Ehrenreich, cited by Moore above)