The New New Year: or, How a Tradition Was Tempered
The New New Year: or, How a Tradition Was Tempered
Author(s): Lydia SklevickyContributor(s): Dorothea Hanson (Translator)
Subject(s): Civil Society, Political history, Social history, Government/Political systems, Politics and society, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Sociology of Politics
Published by: SAGE Publications Ltd
Keywords: New member of power elite; Anti-Fascist Women's Front (AFŽ); 1948; New Year's Day as a socialist holiday; national custom;
Summary/Abstract: With the utopian elan characteristic of new members of a power elite, the activist women of the Anti-Fascist Women's Front (AFŽ) led a campaign at the end of 1948 to take over New Year's Day as a "socialist holiday," "our day of celebration," a future "national custom. " At a time when no project seemed unfeasible-"progress," "culture," socialism/communism were within arm's reach-the appropriation and resemantization of a thousand-year old tradition seemed a completely routine assignment. Forty years after they were written, these documents are more than testimony to the intensity of the revolutionary eros of one generation. Relevant texts on the desired meaning of the New Year, instructions and circulars of higher committees of AFŽ sent throughout the wide base of the hierarchical pyramid, as well as the reports sent back "from the field," enable us to examine, in virtually laboratory conditions, how the traditions, like steel, were tempered. [...]
Journal: East European Politics and Societies
- Issue Year: 04/1989
- Issue No: 01
- Page Range: 4-29
- Page Count: 26
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF