The New New Year: Or, How a Tradition was Tempered

East European Politics & Societies

Volumn 4, Issue 1, 1989, Pages 4-29

  Sklevicky, Lydia ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84970662927     PISSN: 08883254     EISSN: 15338371     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0888325490004001002     Document Type: Article

References (69)

1. Arhiv Instituta za historiju radničkog pokreta Hrvatske (AIHRPH), Arhivski fond Konferencije za društvenu aktivnost žena Hrvatske (Archives of the Conference for Social Activism of the Women of Croatia, KZDAŽH), “Dan dječje radosti.” (emphasis added)
2. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Zapisnik sa sastanka gradskog izvršnog odbora AFŽ-a …,” December 13, 1948. (emphasis added)
3. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Oblasnom odboru AFŽ-a Dalmacije: Gradskim odborima AFŽ-a; Kotarskim odborima AFŽ-a,” (Circular GO AFŽH), December 3, 1948. (emphasis added)
4. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Zapisnik sa proširenog sastanka Sekretarijata OO AFŽ-a u Bjelovaru,” December 6, 1949. (emphasis added)
5. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Zapisnik sa sastanka GO AFŽ-a …,” November 16, 1949. (emphasis added)
6. Eric Hobsbawm, “Mass-Producing Traditions: Europe, 1870–1914,” in E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), p. 263.
7. Eric Hobsbawm, “Introduction: Inventing Traditions,” in Hobsbawm and Ranger, p. 1. 9
8. Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Culture (New York: Basic Books, 1973), p. 449. 28
9. It is not out of place to note that ethnology and social history are particularly close in the study of women's history. The Italian ethnologist Ida Magli, moreover, considers it possible to write women's history “only ethnologically, keeping in mind the entire picture of the period in question, historicizing all institutions of daily life, and not illuminating only ‘events’ essential to the most narrow political viewpoint of the dominant class [and one ought to add, gender—L.S.].” From Ginevra Conti Odorisio, Donna e societa nel' 600 (Rome: Bulzoni, 1979), p. 10.
10. Milovan Gavazzi, Godina dana hrvatskih narodnih obilaja, volume 2 (Zagreb: Matica hrvatska, 1939), p. 5. 54, 55
11. Vjesnik, December 6, 1945.
12. Vjesnik, December 24–26, 1945.
13. Slobodni Dom (Zagreb) III (33), 49, Christmas 1945. This organ was published by the faction of the Croatian Peasant party (HSS) which in 1943 joined the national liberation movement. The Croatian Republic Peasant Party (HRSS) was at that time the only non-communist party allowed in Croatia.
14. See “Narodnooslobodilački pokret—glavni faktor raslojavanja Hrvatske seljačke stranke,” in Fikreta Jelič-Butič, Hrvatska seljačka stranka (Zagreb: Globus, 1983), pp. 127–226
15. (on the fate of Slobodni Dom, see n. 120, p. 291).
16. Another faction of the HSS, loyal to Vlatko Maček, also tried to print its own oppositional paper Narodni glas čovječnosti, pravice i slobode (the editor was Marija, widow of Stjepan Radić), but the first and only issue of October 20, 1945, was immediately forbidden.
17. See Vojislav Koštunica and Kosta Čavoški, Stranački pluralizam ili monizam (Belgrade: University of Belgrade, 1983), pp. 59, 72–73.
18. Vjesnik, December 21, 1945.
19. Vjesnik, December 23, 1945.
20. Vjesnik, January 3, 1946.
21. Vjesnik, December 24, 1946.
22. Slobodni Dom, Christmas 1946.
23. Vjesnik, January 1, 1947, p. 1.
24. Slobodni Dom, Christmas 1947.
25. Vjesnik, December 24, 1947.
26. “The speech of Marshal Tito to the work collective of ‘Tiro's factories “Lirostroj”’ in Ljubljana,” Glas rada, the organ of the Main Committee of the United Unions of Croatia, September 6, 1947.
27. “Plenum of the local union council of Zagreb,” Rad, January 17, 1948.
28. Vjesnik, December 23, 1945.
29. Koštunica and Čavoški, p. 99, and
30. Katarina Spehnjak, “Narodni front Jugoslavije,” Povijesni prilozi 3:1 (1984), pp. 42–45.
31. Vjesnik, January 6, 1950.
32. Vjesnik, January 3, 1948.
33. Vjesnik, January 3, 1949.
34. Slobodni Dom, December 24, 1948.
35. On December 3, 1948, the last relic of the HSS, the slogan “Faith in God and peasant unity” disappeared from the masthead of Slobodni Dom.
36. Steven Lukes, “Politički ritual i društvena integracija,” Kultura 73-74-75 (1986): p. 147.
37. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Oblasnom odboru AFŽ-a Dalmacije …” (Okružnica GO AFŽH), December 3, 1948.
38. KZDAŽH, “Zapisnik sa sastanka gradskog izvršnog odbora AFŽ-a …,” December 13, 1948.
39. See L. Sklevicky, “Emancipated integration or integrated emancipation: the case of post-revolutionary Yugoslavia,” Current Issues in Women's History, edited by Arina Augerman et al. (London: Routledge, 1989), pp. 93–108.
40. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Plan propagande za proslavu ‘Dana dječje radosti’,” undated.
41. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Zapisnik sa sastanka u Glavnom odboru AFŽ-a Hrvatske …,” November 8, 1949 (emphasis added).
42. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Zapisnik sa sastanka za formiranje komisije u vezi zadatka proslave Nove godine …,” December 9, 1949.
43. In regard to the failure to hold classes on Christmas, Dr. Malešević said that that problem must be seen from the perspective of the present situation, where hostile rumors have appeared to the effect that Christmas will be celebrated, so that even if it need not be taken as a hostile act on the part of our professors, it nonetheless meant swallowing hostile propaganda which wanted to show our supposed movement to capitalism … Professor Bošnjaković said that it was not clear to him why we should consider as criminal something which was not regarded as such in Slovenia, for as far as he knew, in Slovenia nobody worked that day.” (From the minutes of the meeting of the Council, January 6, 1951). Aleksandar Šolc, “Uklanjanje pet profesora s Tehničkog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu 1951–1953.” Sciencia Yugoslavica 13:3–4 (1987), pp. 129–130.
44. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Zapisnik sa sastanka održanog u Glavnom odboru AFŽ-a …,” November 10, 1949.
45. Edward Shils, Tradition (London: Faber and Faber, 1981), p. 275.
46. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, memorandum from the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Art, December 3, 1949.
47. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Proslava Nove godine u SSSR-u,” undated.
48. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, Central Committee of the AFŽ of Yugoslavia, November 17, 1949.
49. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Plan propagande za proslavu Dana dječje radosti,” 1948.
50. See Dunja Rihtman-Auguštin, “Djed Mraz,” in Etnologija naše svakodnevice (Zagreb: Školska knjiga, 1988), pp. 103–106.
51. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Okvirna uputstva za proslavu Nove Godine,” 1950.
52. See AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Izvještaj o proslavi Nove Godine,” 1950.
53. AIHRPH, KZDAZH, “Zapisnik sa sastanka GO AFŽ-a povodom priprema za proslavu Nove Godine …,” November 10, 1949.
54. Sally F. Moore and Barbara G. Meyerhoff, “Svetovni rituali. Oblici i značenja,” Kultura 73-74-75 (1986): p. 112.
55. Lukes, “Politički rituali,” p. 143, 1948.
56. For the definition of the concept of ritual I shall use Lukes' fairly generalized definition of ritual as “activities, determined by rules, of a symbolic character which attract the attention of participants to objects/thoughts and emotions which are considered particularly significant.” Lukes, “Politički rituali,” pp. 142–143.
57. “The doctrinal dimension increases the efficacy of the ceremony, establishing appropriate connections between a specific performance and the wider system of postulated ideas and beliefs.” Moore and Meyerhoff, “Svetovni rituali,” p. 113.
58. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Teze za predavanje ‘Briga narodne vlasti za djecu i dužnosti djece prema domovini,’” undated.
59. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Dan dječje radosti,” undated. In some places the organizers of the New Year's celebration (for example in all institutions and boarding schools of the Osijek region) prepared a “collective listening to the speech of Marshal Tito.”
60. See AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Izvještaj o proslavi Nove Godine,” 1950.
61. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Sa proslave Novogodišnje Jelke, škola Ježevo,” February 3, 1949.
62. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Zapisnik sa sastanka GO AFŽH-a,” November 8, 1949.
63. Lukes, “Politićki rituali,” p. 156.
64. “The organization of knowledge of the past” is well illustrated by the creation of “partisan corners.” In the description of the model-performance of New Year's Day in 1948 in Slovenia, we read the following: “At many performances a partisan corner was set up. A tent was set up, a few fir or other trees which conjure up the forest for the children, the floor strewn with moss. There sat the fighters and invalids in uniform, or officers, and talked to the children about our National Liberation Struggle, about child couriers and fighters, about fierce clashes and the glorious victory of our partisans.” Bilten of the Central Committee of the AFŽ of Yugoslavia, no. 4, November 1949.
65. Christel Lane, “Ritual i ceremonija u savremenom sovjetskom društvu,” Kultura 73-74-75 (1986): p. 195.
66. The second plenum of the Central Committee of the CPY (January 28–30, 1949) gave special attention to the improvement of agricultural production and the socialist transformation of the village. “Particular agitation must be conducted in peasant workers' cooperatives, because they are our socialist centers in the village.” AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Zapisnik sa sastanka komisije za agitaciju i propagandu …,” November 11, 1949.
67. AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Izvještaj o proslavi Dana dječje radosti,” January 1950.
68. “We must transfer to the countryside a certain quantity of candy. That will have a great effect on the countryside. They will celebrate Christmas anyway, but we must arouse joy among them for the New Year.” Although the idea of the propagandistic power of candy may appear naive at first glance, “the hunger for gifts” is illustrated by the following example from the same speaker (Maca Gržetić, union representative): “One must be very careful when distributing gifts, because women throw themselves onto the presents.” AIHRPH, KZDAŽH, “Zapisnik sa sastanka GO AFŽ-a Hrvatske,” November 8, 1949.
69. Of interest in this respect are figures from Slovenia which show that the great majority of that republic celebrate Christmas (80%), but only half of them celebrate it for religious reasons. See Nenad Ivanković, “Slovenski korak dalje,” Danas, October 20, 1987, pp. 16–17.