An invented tradition
Beginning in 1945, the ideologically driven post-war authorities commenced the gradual introduction of a new celebration called the New Year’s Fir that was intended to take the place of Christmas. Celebrating the latter in public was prohibited, although it continued to be observed in the intimacy of the family setting. The introduction of the new festivity was, however, a gradual process. The name originally chosen for it was the New Year’s Fir, which in the 1950s became a symbol and a surrogate for Christmas. The fundamental motive behind the invention of this new tradition was the authorities’ desire that adults, through this new holiday, should introduce children in the best possible way to “the life of our socialist community”. As well as replacing the Christmas tree, it was necessary to devise a new figure to be the focus of the new holiday. This was Dedek Mraz (Grandfather Frost), who first appeared in visual form in 1952. The new figure was designed by the artist Maksim Gaspari and the authorities issued a special instruction regarding the appearance that the “true Grandfather Frost” should have.
Nature’s gifts give way to presents
The presents that we place under our Christmas trees and New Year’s firs are more often than not a reflection of the consumer culture of the present age. But this was not always the case. Our ancestors used to place nature’s gifts under the tree – in other words those foodstuffs that were produced or harvested as the year drew to a close. These included dried fruits, hazelnuts, walnuts, slices of cake and loaves of bread. Decorated Christmas trees with colourfully wrapped gifts piled beneath them made their first appearance in Europe’s towns and cities in the eighteenth century. In villages and rural areas, on the other hand, the custom has generally only been known since the First World War. Christmas trees with candles on them are, however, a somewhat older tradition. The first written account of such a tree comes from Hanover in the second half of the seventeenth century. The symbolism of the festive tree is far older still and formed part of popular notions about the tree of life. A shooting star or comet showing the way to the place of Christ’s birth was also part of the decorated Christmas tree. In the years following the Second World War, a red five-pointed star was an essential element of the New Year’s Fir.
Janez Bogataj
