I live in Montgomery, AL, first capital of the Confederate States of America, and this weekend there was a small crowd of re-enactors and others who gathered to celebrate the sesquicentennial of the secession of the Southern states. They’ll be here again in February to reenact the inauguration of Jefferson Davis. I think the festivities will culminate with closing Mobile Bay in 2014, then a big whoop-te-doo with northerners invited to come on down and burn the University of Alabama in April 2015 followed by a sacking of Selma (warning: not a lot to sack these days, very depressed area) then re-enacting Montgomery’s surrender without a fight a few days later.
I’m a descendant of several Confederate soldiers but I can’t for the life of me understand that there were actually tears being shed by some of the people celebrating the secession. I can only assume some were tea-partiers who think anything that distances them from the Federal government must be for the good, but-
The question of the OP: are there any other groups, inside or outside of the U.S., who celebrate major whopping defeats? I’m not referring to professional re-enactors like those in Williamsburg or Plimoth or Jamestown, but those who clearly have a sense of communion and identity (however misplaced) with the combatants.
I’ve seen a society in England who re-enact Cavalier-Roundhead battles but I’ve never got it was so much that they identified with either side so much as as they like 17th century re-enactment, but I could be wrong. Does anybody know if there’s an ancestor-worship or political component to this? Are there Parisian “Bastille Day” reenactors or people who reenact the Napoleonic defeat at Waterloo for fun and identity? Just curious.
One of the weirdest reenactment groups I’ve heard of are the U.S. Civil War reenactors in the U.K… (Picture of the group in Bath who are sponsored by the American Museum.)
Music and such about Irish rebellions, especially the Nine Years’ War, 1798, 1848, and 1916. Add to that Cromwell’s invasion, and depending on your POV, the Civil War.
Originally yes, but ever since WWII it became a commemoration of all Australian servicemen lost in all conflicts not just the Gallipoli campaign.
In that vein I think Anzac day is substanitally different to the OP’s question in that Anzac day is a long long way from being a ‘celebration’. Rather Anzac Day is very much a commemoration of the sacrifices made by the serviceman. The focus of most Anzac Day events is the Dawn Service which is a very solemn ceremony.
The south has a huge Scots-Irish and to a lesser degree Irish base in its white population, both cultures that sing songs about hopelessly lost long ago causes. (Many of the Scots-Irish participated in- and many were exiled for participation in- the Jacobite/Pretender uprisings in 1715/1745). I wonder if that has anything to do with the fixation by so many (certainly not all or even the majority, but a sizable minority) on Lost Cause-ism.
The Scots and the Irish are the big, obvious examples. But it’s pretty common for any culture to idealize war figures in their pasts; Genghis and Kublai Khan are big national heroes in Mongolia even today, in spite of the whole genocide thing.
Jews - or at least, Israelis - celebrate the holiday of Lag Ba’Omer in honor of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-136), arguably one of the worst disasters to befall the Jewish People. The holiday is celebrated with bonfires (in remembrance of the bonfires lit across the country at the start of the rebellion), and due to a legal loophole, weddings.
The two most popular and famous figures in modern Bulgarian history, Hristo Botev and Vassil Levski, were leaders of an the April Uprising,which failed spectacularly. They were both executed at young ages.
Bulgarians today looooooove them both. Like half the schools in Bulgaria are named after one of them (particularly Hristo Botev - the school I worked at is one of them). They grew up in neighboring towns (although they didn’t meet until they were both in exile in Bucharest), one of which also neighbors my own town, and a ridiculous amount of stuff in the area is named after them. There’s a giant stature of Hristo Botev in his hometown, Kalofer. One of the two football teams in Sofia is called Levski. Hristo Botev wrote a lot of revolutionary poetry which children still memorize in school. (It looks pretty silly translated into English, but his most famous poem is probably Hadji Dimitar.) They are ubiquitous figures all over the country, but neither of them reached the age of 40.
The April Uprising is also revered, even though it failed. It started in the town of Koprivshtitsa, which is now a “museum town”, and everything there is like monument to the uprising. The guide will point out where the first shot at a Turkish officer was made, that sort of thing. It’s all very tragic and romantic because the Turks were so evil and the Bulgarians so pure of heart. (History in the Balkans tends not to be very balanced.)
I’ve never heard of reenactments, but I wouldn’t at all be surprised to hear that they happen.
I imagine causes that were defeated (temporarily or permanently) but still seen as noble are commonly celebrated. But the confederacy seems to be in an odd position of being used to represent both patriotism (good) and bigotry (bad).
When did reenactments gain traction? I seem to have heard about them only over the past 20 years or so, but am sure I am waaay outside the loop on their history…
I don’t know how to process them.
I wonder if the ancient Greeks did reenactments of Thermopylae?
There are some who feel that the Civil War was the last fight between the English Union and the gaelic Confederacy. They are sort of glossing over the huge wave of Irish immigrants who fought for the Union Army.
