St. Vitus’ Day Among Slovenes
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Date
2013
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Publisher
Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM
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Abstract
National holidays play an important role in the formation of common memories of the past,
as they are the very sign that marks historical events and figures that must be known to all
citizens, thereby establishing the symbolic unity of all the members of the nation. The holidays of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes emphasized the national unity of the
‘three tribes’, and St. Vitus’ Day was thus added to the otherwise short list. At the beginning
of December 1919, the Minister of the Interior of the newly formed national state of the
‘nation with three names’ declared three new national holidays: 1 December as the ‘day of
the unification of our „nation with three names”’; St. Peter’s Day on 12 July as the birthday
of King Peter I.; and St. Vitus’ Day on 28 June as a ‘day of commemoration for those who
had died fighting for the faith and the homeland’. The use of Serbian symbols and cultural
forms in commemorations in the new nation-state meant that the commemorations in the
state of the ‘nation with three names’ glorified the Serbian sacrifices and suffering, but
denied the contribution of Croats and Slovenes to the establishment of the state community.
Together with the provisions and spirit of the St. Vitus’ Day Constitution, the glorification of
Serbian mythology as the national mythology of the ‘nation with three names’, which was
meant to be the foundation stone for the bright future of the unified nation, became more and
more of a stumbling stone with each passing day.
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Keywords
Nation with Three Names (Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes), National holidays, the Politics of Commemoration, Religion and Nation-State, St. Vitus Day, St. Vitus Day’s Heroes and Villains
Citation
Poznańskie Studia Slawistyczne, 2013, nr 5, s. 117–130
ISBN
798-83-232-2636-9