St. Vitus Day : a conflicted national holiday

When a new nation-state of southern slavs was established they had to introduce new state symbols and cultural forms in commemorations of historical personalities and events. as the Kingdom of Serbia played such an important role, serbian symbols and commemorations were adopted for the purpose. this meant, that in the state of the ‘nation with three names’, they glorified the Serbian sacrifices and suffering, but denied the contribution of Croats and Slovenes to the establishment of the state community. together with the provisions and spirit of the St. Vitus’ Day Constitution, the glorification of Serbian mythology as the national mythology of the ‘nation with three names,’ which was meant to be the foundation stone for the bright future of the unified nation, became more and more of a stumbling stone.