Banal and Nostalgic

Memories of Swedishness in the Christmas Calendar

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33356/temenos.112453

Keywords:

national identity, banal religion, christmas, christmas calendar, advent calendar, secularism

Abstract

This article explores how Christian heritage is engaged with, strengthened, and contested in and through Swedish newspapers and in the annual Swedish Christmas calendar. Although Sweden is perceived as highly secular and characterized by an increased distance between the former state church and the Swedish population, ideas about Swedish cultural heritage are still tied to notions of a Christian past. Previous research has highlighted Christmas as particularly salient for Swedes’ understanding of their cultural heritage and national identity, which includes perceptions of Christmas as ‘merely’ a tradition. Using theories of nostalgia and banal religion, this article addresses how Swedishness is constructed in the Christmas calendar, as well as through its framing in Swedish newspapers. While the narrative of the Calendar does not normally include overt references to Christian parables, it frequently uses Christian and folkloric symbolism to effect a backdrop of nostalgia. I argue that the Calendar and its framing in newspapers play on conceptions of Swedishness that are inextricably linked to ideas of ‘secularized’ Christianity, and by extension to constructions of what counts as national belonging in contemporary Sweden.

Author Biography

Evelina Lundmark, Uppsala University and University of Kent

has a Ph.D. from Uppsala University. This article is
part of her postdoctoral research in the Religious Minorities and Religious
Diversity Research Group at Agder University, Norway.

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Published

2023-06-20

How to Cite

Lundmark, E. (2023). Banal and Nostalgic: Memories of Swedishness in the Christmas Calendar. Temenos - Nordic Journal for the Study of Religion, 59(1), 29–51. https://doi.org/10.33356/temenos.112453

Issue

Vol. 59 No. 1 (2023): Temenos - Nordic Journal for the Study of Religion

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2023 Evelina Lundmark

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