Slavic customs

No matter where do you live, or which ethnical group you belong to, you can recall at least two customs that could be related only to your people. Slavic people aren't different at all, we also have our own customs and habits which are fixed in heads of our people. There are huge number of it, so we will try to cover at least most interesting ones.

Bread and salt

Bread and salt is one of the customs which settled in Slavic countries. It is one of the welcoming gifts. Whenever a guest comes into your house, you are obliged to welcome him with salt and bread. Most commonly, that bread is layed on a embroidered towel and simbolizes all the respect the house owner has for a guest that arrived.

Hospitality

Hospitality is something that all Slavic people inherited from their elders. In old times, whenever a guest comes into one's house, he first takes off his shoes, and then it was common for the householder to wash his guest's feet. This was common because people thought that maybe that guest is a god or goddess showing him or herself as a normal person. People were afraid that god may punish them or their house if they don't host him/her well, but if they do, they will get rewarded. Great hospitality can be seen nowadays in the Slavic homes including bringing out so much food and asking guest to sleep over. Somewhere it is custom that when the guest is at your home, you aren't allowed to sit, you must serve him well. If the householder can't do this, this obligation transfers to his oldest son.

Slava

Literally meaning 'the celebration', is a custom which only can be seen in houses of the orthodox Serbs. It's Christian tradition of the ritual glorification of one's family's patron saint. Every family has it's own saint, and Slava is celebrating annually. In November 2014 it was inscribed in UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. Slava is the social event which gathers friends and family in to the house of householder, regardless if they have the same Slava or not. It is famous for 'česnica', specially made bread, just for needs of Slava. Lit candles and the icon representing that saint are inevitable things that could be seen in one's Slava. Men inheritage Slava from their fathers, and women inheritage Slava from their husbands, upon leaving their parents' home. Serbs think that this is their most significant feist day and they see it as one of the main markers of Serbian identity. They even have a saying : " Gdje je slava, tu je i Srbin" (Where is a slava, there is a Serb also).

Wedding customs

People of the Slavic origins, if they preserved their tradition, have a lot of customs related to a wedding day. First of all, it is best to get married in the morning, because that is the time when the Sun is rising, therefore making progress. This was implied to a marriage, so it is usually decided that marriages take place in the morning, or anytime before noon. Next one is "buying of the bride". Most common in the south Slavic people. Custom is, in front of the door of bride's house (where she is hidden), stands bride's brother of father. Then the groom and his family and friends come and bargain and negotiate the ' price ' of the bride. When they settle the price, groom gives that money to a keeper, and in return he is given the key of the door where the bride is hidden. Also, after the wedding ceremony, the groom takes the bride to his house, and the main custom is that he lifts her and carries her over the threshold. This act simbolizes that they are officially married. 

Slavic egg decorating

The tradition of egg decoration in Slavic cultures originated in pagan times, and was transformed by the process of religious syncretism into the Christian Easter egg. Nevertheless, these decorated eggs have retained much of their pagan symbolism.

In decorating the eggs, people almost always use wax-pen called 'Pisanica' (pisanka, kraslica). This is the process in which one should use wax as a resistance for colour and places on the egg itself where wax is applied can't be affected by the colour which was used to paint the egg. This was mainly a women's job, and nowadays it's done on the Good Friday. The better the eggs are drawn, the proudest the housewife is . 

Slavic mythology

Before Slavic tribes were Christianized, they were pagans. They were polyteistic tribe believing in many gods. This religion is thought to be very old, reaching even Stone age. Unlike Greek or Nordic mythology, who are very popular among people today, there is also very fascinating Slavic mythology that people barely know about. So, in this blog I will introduce you to basic concepts of Slavic mythology and it's major gods and creatures.

The Slavic world was depicted as a large Oak tree, separating the world into three parts: Parv, where the gods would rule, Yav, which is populated by man and constitutes what is seen by the mortal eye, and finally Nav, which is shown as the tree’s roots and is the land of the dead, in other words it can considered the Slavic underworld.

Svarog

Svarog is considered to be main bodiless deity, the creator of everything that can be seen, felt or heard. One of the greatest story of this god is that he is always asleep and that he made this world and everything in it in dream.  Later, he left Perun and other gods to be in charge and to take care of this world. Interesting fact is that he cannot directly interfere to physical world and change things in that way, but he can influence other gods' thinking. It is commonly believed that when he wakes up, that will be the end of this world.

Perun

Supreme god in Slavic mythology. He was god of lightning and thunder.His other attributes were fire, mountains, wind, the oak, iris and the eagle. This is the god that strikes and is putting an end to every injustice. He is always thought about as an older man with long white beard, with lightnings in his hand, but also sometimes was pictured as an eagle or hawk. Nowadays, many plants, mountains and rivers proudly carry the name of this god.His most famous battle is the one with the god Veles. According to the story, Veles converted to a snake and climbed up this tree that presents world, from the underground to "Parv", part where gods reside and there he stole Perun's child. Perun chased him and was constantly throwing lightnings on him. Eventually, he chased him back to the underworld, returned his child and redeemed the trone. Every year this story is happening once again, and Veles (in the body of a snake) is being defeated and he leaves it's skin on the battlefront. This Perun's victory is considered as beggining of a raining season.Slavic people , in the times of drought thought that Perun still isn't defeated Veles, so therefore raining season couldn't begin.

Veles

Veles was a Slavic god of earth,waters, forests and the underworld.He is pictured as wet, bearded, filthy and dark and he is associated to cattle,wealth, music, magic and trickery. Although he is capable of showing himself embodied in any animal alive, his most common appearance is in body of a bear. He started as an major god, functioning as a god who helps people, he eventually converted to evil one, and was considered as a demon. In folk traditions, he always loses battle with Perun, and that is the way in which people show their hope that good will always beat the evil.Veles was also believed to be protector of travelling musicians. For instance, in some wedding ceremonies of northern Croatia (which continued up to the 20th century), the music would not start playing unless the bridegroom, when making a toast, spilled some of the wine on the ground, preferably over the roots of the nearest tree.

Dažbog

Dažbog (somewhere Dajbog) was considered to be a solar deity. One of the few gods which can be found in almost every Slavic tribe. He is also considered to be first god created by Svarog, so he is sometimes called Svarožić (little Svarog). Also, he sometimes was seen as blacksmith, and in some sources it is said that Dažbog is forging our destiny. South Slavs usually see this god as a god of mines, gold, silver and even god of home. For many of them, this god was protector of them and their homes.

Yarilo

Yarilo (or Jarilo) was god of the spring and life. He is believed to be born every year and dies every year. This cycle of his life is shown through various plants who do the same each year.It was common belief that he returns from underworld and reborns every spring, so in every Slavic culture you can see various spring festivals. He was also son of Perun and was twin brother of Morana. The two of them would fall in love and court each other through a series of traditional, established rituals, imitated in various Slavic courting or wedding customs. The divine wedding between brother and sister, two children of the supreme god, was celebrated in a festival of summer solstice, today variously known as Ivanje or Ivan Kupala in the various Slavic countries. 

Morana

Morana (or Marzanna, Morena) was a godess of death, night and winter. She is often described as a demon and is associated with death, winter and nightmares. In Slavic rites the death of Marzanna towards the end of winter is juxtaposed against the birth of Jarilo. Most common appearance is as beautiful girl, with long claws, pale face and long cannines. Because she was a goddess of the winter, people called her the goddess of death of human, plants and nature. Her antipode is Vesna. In close correlation with these two is Stribor, for who is thought that he is 'carrying away one to bring another one' .

Vesna

Vesna was the very opposite of Morana. She was goddess of spring, fertility and nature. She was somewhere called also Živa. She is in charge for spring, morning and basically everything that is in the phase of being born. She is thought as a very beautiful and sometimes naked woman. Her hair is long and always full of flowers. She has lush breasts, which is normal thing for a goddess of fertility. She is sometimes depicted holding an apple in one and grapes in other hand, thus simbolizing all the blessings that spring gives to people. Even after Christianity, this goddess was remembered and somewhere still celebrated. 

Triglav

Triglav is the god of war. He is pictured with three heads or three faces. Many people believe that this three heads or faces are representing earth, sky and the underworld. The most interesting thing about this deity is that his statues was always shown blindfolded. People suggest that this happens because

he was very fond of people and he wanted to remain 'blind' on their sins. Always pictured as god who helps people. He had beautiful black horse, on which he always sent his messages and prophecies to people. 

In the Slavic mythology, there are more divine creatures, some good, some bad, depending on which Slavic tribe you visit to. In my area, among mine people, Svarog and these 7 deities are considered as main gods.
All in all, Slavic mythology is one big topic, and most of the thing carried on orally, because Slavic people were illiterate untill 9th century. If you have more interesting stories about deities and all divine creatures, feel free to comment below! 

Brief history of the Slavic tribes

Traditional Slavic dance called "Kolo" 

Once upon the time, when our mother Earth was still intact, people preferred to live in groups. Among many groups on the face of Earth, there was one group of people which will become the most numerous group of people in the Europe by the present times. Slavic people, was least documented group of "barbarians" by Roman empire. Historians argue whether they lived as nomads, or in some primitive groups, or even that they had a king and lived in a very developed "states" for that time. One of the most common thing that almost all historians agree is that their origins were somewhere in Russia. From there, they started a long journey in every direction, and so , today we have few different groups of Slavic tribes. That partition is based on which part of Europe certain Slavic tribe inhabitates now. So, we have Eastern, Western and Southern Slavs today.
Eastern Slavs are Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians (major groups) and Rusyns (minor group).
Western Slavs are Poles, Czechs, Slovakians (major groups) and Kashubians and Sorbs (minor groups).
South Slavs are Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Montenegrin and Slovenes.
In the terms of the religion, Slavs are divided into two main groups : Orthodox Christian (Eastern church) and Catholic Christian (Western church). Ortodox Slavs are (for the most part) : Russians, Ukrainians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Belarusians, Montenegrin and Macedonians. Catholic Slavs are Poles, Croats, Slovaks, Slovenes and Sorbs. There are some minorities mostly of the South Slavic people
who are Islamic. Biggest group is Bosniaks and few sub-divisions (Gorans, Pomaks and Torbesh).

Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow

In the history, there were many unions, but also many disunions of the Slavic tribes. Most famous unions were :Kingdom of Samo (623-658 AD), Great Moravia (833-902 AD), Balaton Principality (839-876 AD), Kievan Rus' (9th-13th c.AD), Czechoslovakia (1918-1992 AD) and Yugoslavia (1918-1992 AD). Disunions sometimes happened peacefully (split-up of Czechoslovakia) but sometimes it happened with great problems and sometimes even with war (brakdown of Yugoslavia).
One of the unions which never occured was Slavic Union. Story starts sometimes in 1848. in Prague, Czech where this meeting was held. The meeting is called The first Slavic congress and it was attended by international celebrities of the Slavic movement. The chairman of this event was František Palacký (AKA Father of the Czech nation). This meeting was the main cause of starting this Union. Many years later, in 1999, in Russia, few Russian people decided to start this story once again. The leader of the organization is Dmitry Demushkin (Дмитрий Николаевич Дёмушкин). This Slavic Union story was great thing, but it was banned all across Russia and other Slavic states for being similar to Nazi ideology and it's founders either locked-up or they fled to other countries and asked for asylum.

Nevertheless, Slavic people always sought for collectivity instead of individuality and I think there will be more unions in the future.

Happy international women's day!

Today is 8. March, day of all women. Rougly one century ago, women-led protest occured all over the world, where women asked to be equal with man in any way possible. They asked right to vote and to be consulted in many political things. Some sources claim that this holiday started in Soviet Union, therefore it was seen as communist holiday. Nowadays, many countries around the globe are celebrating this holiday dedicated to our mothers, sisters, wives etc. For this day it's common that men buy flowers and other gifts for women to show them respect they earned and all their love for their women. 

 Life without you couldn't be possible, and even if it could be, it wouldn't be nearly good as it is now. Thank you all for your existence and for everything that you have been giving to us since the beginning of the time! 

Dawn of this blog

Hello and welcome to my blog! 

Let me introduce myself. My name is Borjan and I come from Bosnia and Herzegovina. I decided to start this blog to show people beauties of my country and other Slavic countries as well. For those who don't know this, Slavic people inhabitate Eastern, South-Eastern and part of the Central Europe. Today,
roughly 350 million Slavs live on this planet. We have this luck to live in very beautiful part of the world, enjoying this life on the high mountains, fishing in deep rivers and seas and bathing in breathtaking lakes.

Maglić mountain and Trnovačko lake in Bosnia and Herzegovina

We aren't only granted with the beauty of the wild nature, we are blessed with many beautiful women. According to some surveys, a huge amount of people consider Slavic women to be one of the most attractive women on the world. Almost catchy as their blonde hair and deep blue eyes, their pride plays great role in their lives. 

Slavic girl in traditional Slavic apparel

In this blog i will try also to show major differences between Slavic men, their way of thinking and seeing the surrounding world, and all the other people in the world. One little disclaimer in the very beginning: everything what I say here are just mine thoughts and I respect everyone's opinion, but would like to here express my own. 

That should be it, for my first post, I hope you enjoyed it and also hope you will in future of our little journey!