Posts

Attending the Easter Liturgy in the wooden Church at the top of Zlatar Mountain

Image
    Zlatar   is a mountain range  in southwestern Serbia  , lying between towns of  Prijepolje and Nova Varoš .  Its highest peak is  Golo brdo , 1,627 meters tall.  Zlatar is bounded by rivers  Uvac ,  Lim , Mileševka  and Bistrica, and has a total of four artificial lakes –  Zlatar Lake, Uvac Lake, Radoinjsko Lake and Potpeć. Mountainous climate with significant Mediterranean   influence, dense pine forests, and a high number of sunny days, is suitable for medicinal purposes and altitude training.    In last ten years,  Zlatar mountain has  developed as a tourist place because of its proximity to the world-famous canyons of the river Uvac. Today's Zlatar has a large number of hotels and private accommodations which the local population offers to tourists at more favorable prices.   The Republic of Serbia is attempting  to stimulate the local population t...

Easter Greetings in Serbian language

Image
    Serbian language is so wealthy that we have hundreds of ways to congratulate the religious feast days, especially the Easter, which is mostly contributed by many dialects in the Serbian language. For the example, there are many ways to wish "Happy Easter" in Serbian: 1) Srećan Uskrs! 2) Sretan Uskrs! 3) Srećan Vaskrs! 4) Sretan Vaskrs! .... or just use simple greeting "Happy feast" - "Srećni praznik". If you use, any of these phrases, surely that you wont make any mistake but the problem is that is not usual greeting. The most common Easter greeting in Serbia is "Hristos vaskrse" (Christ is risen). The reply on that greeting should to be  "Vaistinu vaskrse"   (Indeed, he is risen). Even you use "Hristos vaskrse" there are also many ways to say it : 1) Hristos VOskrEse!    reply : Vaistinu VOSkrEse! 2) Hristos VAskrese!    reaply: Vaistinu VAskrese! 3) Hristos VAskrSE    reply: Vasitinu VAskrSE!      ...

Today Serbs mark Good Friday

Image
Good Friday - known in Serbian also as Great Friday (Veliki Petak)  - is marked with mourning, while liturgies are not served in temples. It is considered to be the saddest day for Christian believers because Jesus Christ was condemned to death and dies on the cross.  From Friday until midnight liturgies early on Sunday, bells will not be rang in Serbian Orthodox churches - also in observance of mourning.  In Serbia, Good Friday is a day when  believers  fast and refrain from any type of work. Instead, in preparation for the celebration of Easter on Sunday, cooked eggs are decorated - most often colored red - symbolizing the blood spilled by Christ and the new life born out of the sacrifice he consciously made. 

Skull Tower - a price of Serbian freedom

Image
  Skull Tower ( Ћеле Кула )   is a stone structure embedded with the skulls  of Serbian men   It was constructed following the Battle of Čegar  of May 1809, during the First Serbian Uprising  against Ottoman Empire.   Serbian rebels under the command of Stevan Sinelič   were attacked by the Ottomans on  Čegar  Hill, near Niš.    After the defeat of the Serbian rebels, Vizier   Hurshid Pasha  ordered that a tower be made from the skulls of the fallen rebels. The tower is 4.5 meters (15 ft) high, and originally contained 952 skulls embedded on four sides in 14 rows.   Many skulls were taken out of the wall because the families wanted to bury their loved ones. Skull Tower and the chapel enclosing it were declared Cultural Monuments of Exceptional Importance and came under the protection of the Republic of Serbia. Further renovation of the chapel occurred again in 1989. As of 2013, 58 sku...

الكاهن الصربي الأول الذي ترجم القرآن الكريم إلى اللغة الصربية

Image
عندما نتحدث عن ميتشو ليوبيبراتيتش ، نحن لا نتحدث فقط عن رجل ، بل قائد عسكري ، دبلوماسي ، ضابط عسكري ، كاهن ،وجسر يربط المسيحية والإسلام ، مسلمين والمسيحيون ، والكتاب المقدس والقرآن ، بشريان...                                             لا يظهر ميتشو ليوببرياتي كأول كاهن أرثوذكسي ترجم القرآن ، ولكن كأول رجل قام في شبه     جزيرة البلقان بأكملها . وُلد في تريبينيي في البوسنة اليوم ، حيث أنهى دراسته الابتدائية في الدير، بشجاعته ساهم في الانتفاضة في جميع أنحاء البوسنة ضد المحتلين. وكونه ولد في البوسنة آنذاك ، فقد كانت الحياة صعبة. وساهمت الحياة الصعبةانداك إلى جعله قائد عسكري ناضل من أجل توحيد وحرية جميع الشعوب في شبه جزيرة البلقان. بعد انهيار الانتفاضة ، انتقل إلى صربيا المحررة ، سعياً للعمل على دمج المسلمين من البوسنة ، إقليم السنجق و الجبل الأسود حيث ساهم في النضال من أجل الحرية وإيجاد...

Ivo Andrić "Signs by the Roadside"

Image
     "Only what has not been given a form or a name  endures, that which has never left the infinite and eternal landscape of non-existence"       In the form of a journal, Andrić's "Signs by the Roadside" is a series of short texts that can be written in the course of a single day, reflecting the writer's mood at the time, opinion on a particular topic or person, an impression from a trip or a thought that preoccupied him.    Kept for many years and written  in no particular order, these notes were compiled  by the writer in a book  which became the  mirror of his soul, and not merely a journal. These texts are not  organised chronologically, like a traditional journal, but rather  according to the spontaneous activity of the soul, which reacts intensely and emotively to daily stimuli, transforming them into meditations and visions, into pictures of landscapes and people.      Spont...

The White Angel - most remarkable symbol of Serbian art

Image
"White angel" is a part of the artistic composition named "Myrrhbearers on Christ's Grave" located in the Serbian monastery of Mileševa near to the city of Prijepolje in south-west Serbia . "White angel"  belongs to the most famous frescoes of Serbia and it  is considered as one of the most beautiful paintings of Serbian and European art of the Middle Ages. Fresco depicts Archangel Gabriel, who is dressed in a white robe  sitting on a stone and showing the place of Christ's empty tomb  by his finger. "White angel " was created in the 13th century as the work of unknown authors, most probably by  Greek, educated in Constantinople, Nike or Thessaloniki. In the 16th century, another fresco was painted over it, so the White Angel was concealed until the 20th century when this church was restored. "White angel" photography  was sent as a message in the first satellite broadcast signal between America and Europe as a symbol of  ...