RT Article
T1 Much Ado about a Christmas Tree: A Conflict Involving Danish Civil Religion
JF Implicit religion
VO 20
IS 2
SP 127
OP 148
A1 Warburg, Margit 1952-
LA English
PB Equinox
YR 2017
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1571525319
AB Civil religion is not only a symbolic expression of national coherence; it is often also an arena of conflict, where different actors promote their own ideological interpretation of the same events. This will be illustrated through an analysis of a conflict in Denmark in November 2012, where a Muslim majority of a housing association decided to abandon the tradition of having a Christmas tree. The events and the resulting public debate were reported in more than 650 articles and commentaries in the printed press alone, and the debate divided politicians and the public on issues of national traditions, integration, and religion. A Christmas tree is an important civil-religious symbol in Denmark, and this may explain why the affair became hotly debated. The different commentaries from the printed press are classified and analysed from the perspective that civil religion has two complementary dimensions, that of religion and that of nation. The classification is illustrated in a new graphical model of the civil-religious space between religion and nation.
K1 Civil Religion
K1 Politics
K1 Christmas
K1 Christmas trees
K1 DEBATES & debating
K1 Denmark
K1 Denmark : Politics & government
K1 EMIC & etic (Anthropology)
K1 emic/etic
K1 Muslims
DO 10.1558/imre.32878