Festivals as Psychological and Cultural Phenomena in Kazakhstan: A Conceptual Analysis of Aesthetic Experience, Ritual, and Belonging
Downloads
Objective: To clarify how festivals may organize aesthetic expression, ritual meaning, and social belonging, using Kazakh Nauryz as a bounded contextual illustration rather than an empirical case study.
Methods and Materials: A critical integrative conceptual analysis was organized around cultural anthropology, philosophical aesthetics, ritual theory, and social psychology. Foundational scholarship was read alongside relevant contemporary research and institutional descriptions of Nauryz. No interviews, field observations, surveys, or experimental data were collected for this article.
Findings: Four interpretive dimensions are differentiated: the aesthetic transformation of ordinary space and time; symbolic and ritual communication; collective performance and play; and potential experiences of emotional synchrony and belonging. The proposed relations are conceptual and context-sensitive, not measured psychological pathways.
Conclusion: Festivals can be understood as culturally situated performances that make values and identities perceptible. Psychological outcomes depend on participation, interpretation, exclusion, and institutional conditions and require dedicated empirical assessment.
Downloads
Bakhtin, M. M. (1984). Rabelais and his world. Indiana University Press. https://books.google.com/books?id=SkswFyhqRIMC
Bell, C. (1997). Ritual: Perspectives and dimensions. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195110517.001.0001
Collins, R. (2004). Interaction ritual chains. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt13x0rs3
Durkheim, E. (2001). The elementary forms of religious life (C. Cosman, Trans.). Oxford University Press. https://books.google.com/books?id=3j5tyWkEZSYC
Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan. (2022). Traditions and holidays. https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa-budapest/press/article/details/73529?lang=en
Hobson, N. M., Schroeder, J., Risen, J. L., Xygalatas, D., & Inzlicht, M. (2018). The psychology of rituals: An integrative review and process-based framework. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 22(3), 260–284. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868317734944
Huizinga, J. (1955). Homo ludens: A study of the play-element in culture. Beacon Press. https://www.beacon.org/Homo-Ludens-P128.aspx
Li, G., Singyabuth, S., Song, W., Hu, W., & Kong, R. (2026). Embodied ritual participation and ethnic identity in Guangxi’s San Yue San Festival: A qualitative ethnographic study. International Journal of Body, Mind and Culture, 13(5), Article e2026-1398. https://doi.org/10.61838/ijbmc.v13i5.1398
Pizarro, J. J., Zumeta, L. N., Bouchat, P., Włodarczyk, A., Rimé, B., Basabe, N., Amutio, A., & Páez, D. (2022). Emotional processes, collective behavior, and social movements: A meta-analytic review of collective effervescence outcomes during collective gatherings and demonstrations. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 974683. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.974683
Seyed Alitabar, S. H. (2023). Cultural beliefs and family well-being: A narrative review. Journal of Psychosociological Research in Family and Culture, 1(2), 25–32. https://doi.org/10.61838/kman.jprfc.1.2.4
Singh, P., Tewari, S., Kesberg, R., Karl, J. A., Bulbulia, J., & Fischer, R. (2020). Time investments in rituals are associated with social bonding, affect and subjective health: A longitudinal study of Diwali in two Indian communities. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 375(1805), Article 20190430. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0430
Turner, V. W. (1969). The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. Aldine. https://www.routledge.com/The-Ritual-Process-Structure-and-Anti-Structure-1st-Edition/Turner-Abrahams-Harris/p/book/9781315134666
UNESCO. (2016). Nawrouz, Novruz, Nowrouz, Nauryz, Nooruz, Navruz and related traditions [Intangible cultural heritage inscription]. https://ich.unesco.org/en/decisions/11.COM/10.B.1
Włodarczyk, A., Zumeta, L., Basabe, N., Rimé, B., & Páez, D. (2023). Religious and secular collective gatherings, perceived emotional synchrony and self-transcendent emotions: Two longitudinal studies. Current Psychology, 42, 4754–4771. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01826-0
Xygalatas, D., Mitkidis, P., Fischer, R., Reddish, P., Skewes, J., Geertz, A. W., Roepstorff, A., & Bulbulia, J. (2013). Extreme rituals promote prosociality. Psychological Science, 24(8), 1602–1605. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612472910
Copyright (c) 2026 International Journal of Body, Mind and Culture
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
