The Nation-State Celebrates: Research Horizons in Slovenia

Abstract

Summary: The article places the contemporary anthropological, ethnological and culturological research of state holidays in Slovenia within the disciplinary tradition of Slovenian holiday research and the broader frame of issues related to political rituals. Up until the past few decades, holidays as celebrated in the Slovenian lands had been a parade of ethnological/folklorist subjects framed within the context of folk culture research. It is thus not surprising that folk holidays were put at the forefront of examination, thematised from the perspective of a relatively static concept of tradition. The rapid political, economic and social change characteristic of the period after the Second World War was reflected not only in the transformed holiday landscapes, but also in a reconfiguration of the research horizons. These are presented through the findings concerning state holidays that resulted from a recent research project on the Slovenian holidays and constitution of national community.