Christmas Songs and Constructing Identities

Abstract

The basic question addressed in this paper – “Is there a European song heritage or a European heritage in songs?” – is not just a question of Europe, heritage and songs: it leads to the deeper issue of identity that extends beyond national frameworks. The study of these issues cannot ignore the struggle for national identity, ideological differences, contemporary political tensions, and globalization. Taking all of these into consideration, can Europe be understood as a special cultural space with its expression in or using songs, or is it just a new imagined community? – For this kind of study, Slovenian ethnic territory offers remarkable opportunities due to its exceptional historical and spatial meeting points. By concentrating on Christmas songs this paper seeks to determine what the past influences were upon the image of the Slovenian Christmas experience. This study also examines how communism, which relegated the celebration of Christmas to the private sphere, influenced these songs and the Christmas experience, as well as the kinds of changes engendered by Slovenian independence and transition, when the market and the media entered Slovenians’ home lives and Christmas became part of the public sphere. This paper considers these processes in order to address the question of the relationship between song heritage and concepts of identification.

***

Izhodiščno vprašanje – »Ali obstaja evropska dediščina pesmi ali evropska dediščina v pesmih« – ni le vprašanje Evrope, dediščine in pesmi: vodi k globljemu razmisleku o identiteti, ki presega nacionalne okvire. Ob opazovanju tega problema ne moremo mimo iskanja nacionalne identitete, ideoloških razločkov, sočasnih političnih pritiskov in globalizacije. Ali lahko Evropo – upoštevajoč vse te značilnosti – razumemo kot posebni kulturni prostor, ki se izraža tudi v pesmih ali z njimi, ali je to le nova umišljena skupnost? – Slovenski etnični prostor zaradi posebnih zgodovinskih in prostorskih stičišč za tak premislek ponuja izredne možnosti. S pozornostjo do božičnih pesmi tako skuša prispevek ugotoviti, kaj vse je vplivalo na podobo slovenskega doživljanja božiča v preteklosti, kako je na pesmi in na doživljanje božiča vplival socializem, ki je praznovanje božiča potisnil v zasebnost, in kakšne spremembe sta prinesli slovenska osamosvojitev in tranzicija, ko sta tržišče in medijski prostor vstopila v zasebni svet Slovencev, božič pa je postal del javnega življenja. Z opazovanjem teh procesov prispevek odpira tudi vprašanja o razmerju med pesemsko dediščino in koncepti identifikacije.