We attended our first slava on Thursday night. In the Serbian Orthodox faith, every family has a patron saint, and the slava (or feast) is celebrated on the feast day for each family's particular saint. The event itself might best be compared to our American Thanksgiving celebration, but only in terms of the similar way in which families gather and celebrate through the preparation and enjoyment of a special feast. In contrast to Thanksgiving, the Serbian slava is a religious holiday, and on slava day, the family attends church in the morning, and then either receives a blessing for the feast from the priest at church, or is visited by the priest in their home to receive the blessing. Then, the feast begins, and as far as we call tell, literally lasts all day.
Our wonderful next door neighbors (the ones with the kids that have become friends with our kids) invited us to their slava on Thursday night. Unfortunately, Eli and I had plans later that evening, and so I had told Branka, the Mom, that we could only stay for a little while. She told me that the family would be eating around 3:00, but that they would be "celebrating" all night, and that we were welcomed to stop by anytime. Sounded pretty casual to me. Well, we arrived around 6:30 (all 7 of us!), thinking that we'd have a glass of wine and maybe some snacks, and visit for a little while and leave. However, in typical Eastern European fashion (and consistent, I now know, with how slavas are done) we were greeted upon our arrival with a table set just for our family, and Branka proceeded to feed us a multi-course meal (in anticipation of the Italian food that Eli and I knew we would be eating later that evening, I did my best to eat as little as possible, but it wasn't easy -- it was all SO good!).
We later learned that although the family may eat earlier in the day, they continue to set the table throughout the day in order to accommodate and friends and family who stop by to visit on slava day. Branka had turned her living room into a veritable restaurant, with several tables seating a total of about 20 people. I am guessing that after we left, Branka reset our table, and fed other friends later in the evening. We felt terribly that we could not stay longer, as the hospitality was tremendous, and we were so enjoying being with our friends and experiencing this wonderful tradition. But, given that we had been invited to dine with our Italian friends later that evening, we sheepishly had to say goodbye earlier than we would have like to.
From the slava, Eli and I hopped in a cab and went to the home of one of Eli's colleagues and his wife, both of whom are Italian. Marco and Elena are a young couple without children, and they had invited another couple (Italian woman married to a Serb) to join us. Marco and Elena treated us to some wonderful Italian food, delicious wine from the Piedmont region in Italy and lots of fun and interesting conversation. What impressed me most about the evening was the ease with which our hosts and their other guests engaged in pretty lofty political and cultural discussions in English -- a second language for all four of them. All of them, truth be told, spoke English as well as Eli and me, which made me realize how very lucky we are as Americans that our language really is regarded as the "international" language. It also made me realize how much more skilled so much of the world is in terms of language ability, and it motivated me to work harder on my own language studies, since it really is a pretty amazing thing to be able to converse well in more than language.
Overall, it was a fascinating evening, and one that we will not soon forget. Thanks to our wonderful Serbian and Italian friends for such amazing kindness and hospitality!
Erin
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment