Tradição e (re) invenção da tradição: a Oktoberfest de Igrejinha/RS.

Abstract

The Oktoberfest of Igrejinha-RS takes place yearly since 1988 and its primary goal is to celebrate the german culture brought by the immigrants that colonized the region. The festival is utterly important for the city and the region development, as it has a large number of visitors and its attractions are being improved continuously. Besides that, the festival holds the title of Cultural Heritage of Rio Grande do Sul. This project has been produced with the aim of understanding how the festival articulates the notions of tradition, re-traditionalization, invention of tradition and Cultural Heritage in Igrejinha. This research has been designed according to the records of the previous parties, which are photographs, newspaper reports from Association of Friends of the Oktoberfest, and interviews. There have been some questions regarding some of the cultural aspects: how was the festival set up in order that it would keep on being held and how useful is it nowadays. The methodology has been based on different elements of ethnography, oral history, documentary research and news. The thesis is divided into three chapters, namely the history of the city, the history of Oktoberfest, and tradition. This project has been guided by the following authors: Grützmann, Dreher, Feldens, Engelmann, Arévalo, Lenclud and Machuca.