Die Bedeutung christlicher Feste für das laizistische Europa der Gegenwart

The Christian festivals set the rhythm of life in Europe more and more for 1600 years. The Christian calendar enjoyed a monopoly in the organization of social time. In this context, the great festivals played a primary role. Yet the question has contemporary importance by reason of the progressive, yet radical, change of the European context in the matter of the Christian religion. We are no longer in the midst of a modernity characterized among other things by the adoption of a critical distance from religions. What then is the meaning of Christian festivals in this context? We see four parties at play: the Universal Catholic Church with its Code of Canon Law; the local Catholic church with its particular customs; the State and its public holidays; and citizens with their personal convictions and interests. I should first like to take notice of features particular to France and then I will examine in detail a concrete example that may presage the difficult questions to come; the conflict in 2004–2008 around “Pentecost Monday” (or “Whit Monday”). That will allow me to venture some hypotheses towards a future for Christian festivals in the ultramodern society that is process of becoming