What is a " Red letter " day?

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"The red letter" day ("Crveno slovo" ) it is a term in the Serbian language that marks the day of the great Christian feast.
This term comes from the ancient Serbian tradition, when many centuries ago in Christian calendars, the biggest holidays were written by red ink (other feasts are written by standard black ink). This tradition has remained even today.
   If you visit any church or monastery in Serbia and if you buy a religious, Orthodox calendar, you will see many feasts written in red. For this reason, the day of that kind of feast  is called "the day of the red letter" .  Currently, Serbian Orthodox Church recognizes 38 "the red letters" days (without Sundays because Sunday is always written by red)

But why it's important?


This is important because of the cultural patterns that are respected in rural parts of Serbia.  According to the Serbian tradition, "the day of the red letter" as the day of the great religious feast  is the day when all the hard physical works of every form are avoided. According to the Serbian tradition, "the day of the red letter" is the day that should be dedicated to fasting, prayer and going to church (although not every "red letter day" is a fasting day ).

What does that mean?

This means that you will not see people working in gardens, fields, or any work on crops  on a day of red letter in Serbian villages. Also, you will not see Serbian women to knit, wash the clothes, to crochet, etc... If you ask a Serbian farmer to help you to build a house or any  work in the garden on "the day of the red letter", be sure  that he is going to  kindly refuse you, but the next day he is going to be the first one who will help you when the red letter day is over.








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