Transforming an Environmentally Pernicious Holiday into an Environmentally Healthy Festival

While the environmental impacts of religious and secular holidays are increasingly characterized, interventions to reduce their effects are modest and poorly understood. Israel’s L’ag B’omer holiday has emerged as a major air pollution source due to the common practice of lighting bonfires. We imple...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Kerret, Dorit (Author) ; Tal, Alon (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2018
In: Worldviews
Year: 2018, Volume: 22, Issue: 3, Pages: 238-262
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Israel / Lag Ba'omer / Environmental damage / Alternative / School / Study
IxTheo Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AG Religious life; material religion
AH Religious education
BH Judaism
KBL Near East and North Africa
NCB Personal ethics
Further subjects:B Holidays environmental education self-control skills environmental hope environmental behavior intervention study positive psychology
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:While the environmental impacts of religious and secular holidays are increasingly characterized, interventions to reduce their effects are modest and poorly understood. Israel’s L’ag B’omer holiday has emerged as a major air pollution source due to the common practice of lighting bonfires. We implemented and evaluated an intervention amongst Israeli school children in which they were challenged to design and adopt alternative “environmentally friendly” celebrations that maintained the holiday spirit. The interventions were observed and a mixed method approach applied to study implementation involving, interviews with teachers, parents and students as well as an ex-post questionnaire answered by participants. Children supporting environmental celebrations displayed higher levels of environmental behavior, and environmental hope than those preferring bonfires. Those who voted for an environmental alternative, against the majority, also displayed higher levels of self-control skills. The study confirms the potential of well-designed, environmentally friendly holiday celebrations to replace environmentally deleterious ones.
ISSN:1568-5357
Contains:In: Worldviews
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15685357-02203102