You know, sitting here in our apartment in Belgrade during the comercial break of "Bad Santa," or "Nevaljali Deda Mraz" as the Serbs call it in the TV guide, it occurred to me that Christmas is the perfect time, the ideal time, the quintessential time to send a little news along. In fact, I realized to myself, people do this kind of thing all the time, this Christmas-card-y thing. To be honest, I only realized today how close Christmas actually is--the Serbs are on the Orthodox calendar, which means that Christmas comes on January 7th, and New Year's on January 14th. As for us, we have a very little, very plastic Christmas tree and we're going to get some lights for it. Ho ho ho.
Something amazing! "Deda Mraz" translates to "Father Frost," and he comes on Jan.1, not on Christmas. IN FACT most people here give gifts at NEW YEARS and not on Christmas. However. Before the mid 20th century, it was "Bozic Bata," or "Christmas Boy" who brought presents, and presents were exchanged on Christmas eve. (
Click here for more on little boys bearing gifts -- I think Bozic Bata must be a variation. Bozic Bata looked like Saint Nicholas, but I think he probably started out much the same and then changed over time.)
Why the switch? The communist government systematically replaced the symbol of "Bozic Bata," and the Christmas holiday, with that of "Deda Mraz" and of New Years Day over a period of years, in order to diminish the power of the church. It's really amazing to see symbols redefined right in front of your eyes, translating one set of rituals onto new meanings. Amazing! I heard that and it blew my mind. Today, the tradition of New Year's persists even without the communists.
I suppose there's really nothing wrong with the idea, nor is it anything new. I'm not religious myself, but it seems to me that communism is a religion just the same as Christianity is a religion. Americans took Saint Nicholas and turned him into Santa Claus as a symbol of their capitalist religion. These crazy things that keep your mind-gears spinning when you're trying to sleep...
Life is good here in the Serb-land, and things are wrapping up. We have a little over three weeks left, but they will be very full weeks. Our friend Shane is coming to visit for 10 days, then it's Christmas here, then we're going skiing for five days in Bosnia, then we come home, pack up the apartment, and get on a plane.
I figure that the best way to brief you peoples on the news is to pick out a selection of this year's best photos. I'll be linking to photos throughout, so just click the little underlined words as you go.
I moved three times this year, possibly four, but probably three. First, from
Chicago to
New York, then from New York to
Belgrade. Since last update, a few little trips have happened -- we crossed the border into
Hungary and back to extend my visa. You get a 90 day visa when you enter Serbia, but you can renew it by simply leaving and coming back. So we did that, but then we forgot to go
to the police station to get some sort of identity card, and so we had to do the whole thing again, this time crossing
into Bosnia, to get a new
stamp and a new visa. But now, I'm legit. Phew! Oh, and on the way back, Natalija's father bought
30 kg of cabbage.
Halloween was a great success. We had a
pepper carving party because they don't harvest the pumpkins until later here.
We also had a
nice little Thanksgiving at our house --
Natalija's mom made a turkey, Natalija and I
made an apple pie, and all the other
fixins. And then we didn't clean up for a week and the kitchen started to smell.
Lately? We've been playing a
lot of pool, Natalija's cousins got a
puppy, and we just got our
first real snow. And, an update: as I took a break from writing this, Natalija's father came over and gave us
new lights for our little fake plastic xmas tree.
Happy Holidays, and here's to 2007!
Love,
Chris & Natalija
