Everyday life is one of ethnology's most central concepts, and it has different meanings. On the one hand, it marks an ambition to explore what is taken for granted and routine in people's lives, in different contexts and times.
With this approach, festivities and interruptions are also part of everyday life. The other approach is to consider everyday life and festivities as two separate objects of study; then everyday life is the everyday lukewarmness, while the festivities is what breaks with other expectations, behaviors and experiences (see also Cultural utterances, Rituals and Play). The two approaches are equally important in ethnology, both as part of its’ history and in the research of here and now.