Issue Theme:
State Holidays and their Celebrations in Central Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Deadline for submissions: June 30, 2015

Contact: stred@mua.cas.cz

Publication languages: Czech, English, German

Journal Website:
http://www.mua.cas.cz/index.php/en/journals/centre

Full text of the journal:
http://www.ceeol.com

Abstracts:
http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl

Official holidays are a significant part of state politics and represent an important element in the process of constructing and shaping national identities. In old monarchies, they were often connected to the tradition of the ruling family; during the interwar period in the 20th century, they often had a strongly republican connotation; in the post-war era, the state regulated the celebration of state holidays. There was always an effort to lend a structure to the calendar year and „control“ cyclical time as well as create new traditions for the citizens of the newly formed states.
The Central European context offers opportunities for comparison, for example of various social, national or political situations in the individual states, their centers and peripheries.
The content and form of the codified holidays, as well as their alternations, were designed by the state power, various social agents and political or interest groups. Researching how they were established, negotiated and observed can reveal how new social orders are created. Contributions may thus examine the question of how a new social order was shaped through state holidays (for example after 1918, 1945/8 or 1989/90), how their performativity changed, or how their observances evolved in the context of changing social and cultural frameworks.

Proposed thematic areas:

– comparing the practices of celebrating official holidays in the Central European states, their differences and parallels
– transnationalization of state celebrations (commemorations of the end of the Second World War, etc.) and their relationship to the various national/state practices
– various forms and content of state or national festivities in the center and the peripheries
– gender issues; different status of men and women in the celebrations of various holidays
– relationships between diverse political, religious and national environments vis-a-vis official (state) commemoration activities and practices; official holidays and minorities
– the role of the army in the creation of individual official festive cultures
- the generational aspect – transformations of the celebrations of specific holidays in intergenerational perspective