The Changing Nature of Religious Festivals: Fluidity, Adaptability, and Interpretation

Open session

Religious festivals have long functioned as the expression of collective beliefs, ritual practice, and community identity. In contemporary societies, however, festivals are increasingly shaped by processes of globalization, migration, urbanization, digital communication, and cultural exchange, leading to significant transformations in their meanings, practices, and social roles. This panel explores the changing nature of religious festivals from a sociological perspective, focusing on how they remain rooted in tradition while simultaneously undergoing continuous reinterpretation and adaptation.Rather than viewing festivals as fixed ritual forms, the panel approaches them as dynamic social processes through which meanings are constantly negotiated by diverse actors, including religious institutions, local communities, migrants, tourists, and digital publics. These interactions generate multiple layers of interpretation, allowing festivals to function as spaces of continuity as well as innovation.The panel is particularly interested in how religious festivals contribute to the construction of social identities, the formation of communities, and the negotiation of cultural boundaries in both local and transnational contexts. It also examines how festivals are reshaped through heritage discourses, tourism economies, and digital media platforms.By bringing together empirical and theoretical contributions, the panel aims to advance sociological understanding of religious festivals as fluid, adaptive, and interpretively open phenomena that reflect broader transformations in contemporary religious and social life.