Surviving Slava

In a nutshell, Slava is a Serbian Orthodox Celebration of a family's patron saint.

I think that the best way to start this post is by answering the question "What is Slava?"

As with most things both faith and tradition related, especially in the Balkans, it depends very much on who you talk too.

In a nutshell though, Slava is a Serbian Orthodox Celebration of a family's patron saint.

It is an important moment in the year.

But, in an effort to be as transparent and factual as possible, I'll leave this wiki link for you to check out and read.

My neighbour celebrates St John the Baptist, which is on 20 January. A point of note here is that the Serbian Orthodox (pravoslavac), follow the Juilan calendar, not the Gregorian.

The evening of the 19th sees us invited to dinner at our neighbours. A small affair with maybe 8 or so people around the table.

In this video, Tamara and I talk about our experience with Slava.