Happiology in community festivals: a case of Filipino repeat local participants

Abstract

Happiness, a construct widely studied since ancient times, has permeated the field of tourism studies for its capacity to promote well-being and satisfaction among tourists. However, in a festival context, studies on happiness remain a research imperative to date. This phenomenological inquiry seeks to elucidate the ontology of festival happiness among a select group of Filipino repeat participants in three major community festivals in the Philippines. Twenty-one (n=21) purposively selected participants were involved and subjected to a semi-structured interview. Field texts were analyzed via primary and secondary coding analyses and through constant comparison of data, the Cone of Repeat Participants Festival Happiness consisting of distinct views of festival happiness as rootedness and responsibility has emerged in this qualitative study. Notably, the notion of festival happiness as rootedness emphasizes the role of aesthetics, spirituality, and nostalgia as these evoke pleasant emotions such as pride, appreciation, and devotion among festival participants. While the second notion, named festival happiness as responsibility, underscores that participation, growing with the festival, and contributing to its success may form happy, empathic, resilient, and altruistic festival participants. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in this paper.