What's the attitude to religion in Slovenia? It occurred to me that maybe Melania is just being "European" in having an non-reverential attitude to Christmas. But then I have no idea what attitudes are like in Slovenia. It's a more religious culture than the UK, I think, but it also had a long period of communism and official atheism, so I don't know.
As far as I'm concerned "Christmas" has never had anything much to do with religion (the name is just a historical accident). The purpose of it has probably remained the same since it was that Pagan festival the early Christian church hijacked - a feast and celebration to make the dark Northern hemisphere winters more bearable. Whenever a religion arrives on the scene it likes to appropriate existing festivals and mystical practices, as it makes it easier for the locals to accept the new ruling class ideology. In practice though it seems all it does is add a load of more things to get stressed about.
But it seems to me there's also a class-based difference. Working class people are more prone to sentimentality and to want to make Christmas special 'for the children'. Middle and upper-class people (whether of liberal or libertarian variety) tend to be more scornful and callous about it. Melania might just be being true to an elite background.
Seems as if in the US there's a tacit agreement to pay lip-service to it being a sacred thing. All cultures have their norms that mean they agree to pretend certain things are other than what they are, I guess (see also the Surpreme Court, the Founding Fathers and the Constitution...or over here, the Royal family)
Facebook
Twitter