An Orthodox Nest: Our Slava

Our family celebrated our slava this week (ours is St. John the Baptist). As a little background, each Serbian family has a patron saint for their family, and this saint is their slava saint. On the day of the year when this saint's feast day is celebrated, the family celebrates their slava. It is the most important day of the year for the Serbian family (and most celebrate not just one day, but three). So much work goes into preparing for your slava! Each family bakes a kolac, which is the traditional slava bread, and is used to remember and commemorate the living members of the family. You also make a bowl of wheat (usually it is ground with nuts and sugar mixed in), and decorate it with a cross on top. This wheat is used to commemorate and remember the members of the family who have died. In addition to these two things, a lot of Serbian traditional foods are prepared, and it is never just a one-day affair!

Now, on to the day of slava itself. It is nice for at least a few members of the family to go to church on the morning of their slava (sometimes the housewife stays behind to prepare for the feast at home), and that is just how we started our day...by going to liturgy. Immediately after liturgy, the children and I came home and I prepared for a few parishioners to come over for coffee and lunch. My husband had to go visit the homes of people who did not make it to church that morning, in order to bless their home and serve the slava service, which includes blessing the kolac and zito (the wheat, pronounced zhee-to). He was home only later on in the evening, just after 7. Our evening guests, mostly whom were parishioners, arrived at 7 PM. There were about 25 guests in total that night. It is intimidating to host so many people for a fancy, sit-down meal (at least for this housewife, it was!) Thankfully, everything went pretty smoothly (aside from me burning the soup as I reheated it...which resulted in no soup for the guests. Thank God there was so much other food, though!)

On the morning after our slava, we woke up with completely sore bodies, from head to toe! That's what happens when you host a slava, but I am pretty sure it means you hosted it properly :) Round 2 was last night, but it was a breeze because I served the same food from Tuesday night that was leftover, and it was a group of friends, so it was less overwhelming.

Until next year, slava!

Here are some photos from slava, from prep to go time!

Preparing our kolac

Ready to go into the oven! This is the moment you hope for the best!

Sarma. Serbian cabbage rolls...for non-lenten slavas, they are stuffed with meat and rice...for lenten slavas, they are stuffed with rice and vegetables. This was my first time making sarma, ever!