The renowned Russian writer Lyof Tolstoy unabashedly bemoaned what he deemed adverse expressions of patriotism and national celebrations when he wrote the following, in a turn-of-the-century treatise:

Rulers and elites clearly do not share Tolstoy's cynical view of national celebrations; rather, they tend to consider them a useful device in the quest for power, grandeur and legitimacy. Indeed, ever since the Greek and Roman Empires, public pageants have been a handmaid of politics. This was particularly true of the rise of the nation-state in Europe and elsewhere from the eighteenth century. These pageants gradually moved from the center of the polity to the periphery, inducing the masses to play an important role in the celebrations as participants and spectators.

By the end of the twentieth century, however, with the consolidation of the nation-state, the impact of globalization upon Western societies and the growing erosion of physical boundaries, the importance of state celebrations, at least in Europe, appeared to have faded.