Аңдатпа
The article reveals the heuristic potential of a holiday as an event in the personal and social life of a person, his/her cultural memory. The phenomenon of the holiday is analysed in the unity of philosophical, historical, psychological, artistic aspects and the mechanisms of representation and reconstruction of the past through mythologisation and sacralisation of fragments of life, semiotisation of space, and transmission of cultural meanings of the era in festivity are studied. The essence of a holiday is defined as an event in cultural memory in relation to the past, which is crucial for the present and the future, due to the presence of a mythologising component and the need for a constant proclamation of the basic values recorded in the cultural memory and the text of the holiday. The article considers the significance of the holiday as a specific form of ritual action practiced in specific communities and reproducing the meanings rooted in culture, being subject to modification in the context of social change. Reflecting the change in social guidelines, the holiday creates a cultural design of value and normative regulators of social behaviour. The event of a holiday and festivity is substantiated as a phenomenon of a certain culture and the most important social institution, which acts as a resource of tribal identity and intragroup cohesion of pre-industrial society, becomes an ideological means of forming social identity during the industrial revolution and an object of mass consumption in a modern society. The article shows how the modification of the holiday in the consumer society manifests itself in multidirectional trends: on the one hand, the degree of formalisation of the holiday procedure is decreasing, the symbolic privatisation of official holidays is taking place, and the utilitarian nature of the celebration is becoming more apparent. On the other hand, the holiday remains a tool for regulating social relations and a way of channelling group interests, which is manifested in its political involvement and ritual formalisation. As a subject of economic interest and information exchange, the holiday promotes the spread of cultural practices and standardised behavioural patterns.