Abstract
The Norwegian National Day (17 May, also referred to as Constitution Day) stands out as one of the most popular National Day celebrations in Europe. According to surveys, around seven out of every 10 Norwegians take part in a public celebration during this day. This means that the National Day potentially has an impact on the way people reflect upon national identity and its relationship to the Lutheran heritage. In this paper, I will focus on the role religion plays in the Norwegian National Day rituals. Researchers have described these rituals as both containing a significant religious element and being rather secularized. In this article, I discuss the extent to which the theoretical concepts civil religion and religious nationalism can help us understand the role of religion, or the absence of religion, in these rituals. Based on surveys of the general population, I analyze both indicators of civil religion and religious nationalism. The two phenomena are compared by looking at their relation to such items as patriotism, chauvinism, and xenophobia. The results show that civil religion explains participation in the National Day rituals better than religious nationalism.
Highlights
Background of the StudyIn this article, I will discuss the role of religion in the National Day celebrations
I will examine how people in Norway look upon the role of church and religion in the National Day celebrations and discuss how these findings relate to the theoretical perspectives presented above
Day celebrations and has become a more implicit part of the celebrations in most local communities; (b) It is still relevant to use the concept civil religion to describe these elements; (c) Religious nationalism is in general not suited to describe the religious elements of the National Day rituals, its power potential has been undermined by the ongoing secularization process
Summary
I will discuss the role of religion in the National Day celebrations. Two theoretical perspectives on public forms of religion will be analyzed: civil religion and religious nationalism. It was inspired by and meant to characterize liberal group principles, but at the same time, it has traits from a homogenous culture with excluding paragraphs in relation to ethnic and religious minorities. Examples of this are the paragraphs excluding Jews and Jesuits, which were first removed in 1852 and 1956, respectively (Hoffmann 2020). I will examine how people in Norway look upon the role of church and religion in the National Day celebrations and discuss how these findings relate to the theoretical perspectives presented above. Day celebrations and has become a more implicit part of the celebrations in most local communities; (b) It is still relevant to use the concept civil religion to describe these elements; (c) Religious nationalism is in general not suited to describe the religious elements of the National Day rituals, its power potential has been undermined by the ongoing secularization process
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