It is beautiful to hear of your appreciation for Serbia and Macedonia Andrew, and your conversion to the Serbian Orthodox Church as well. I think you have probably observed that religion for Southern Slavs tends to be rooted more in culture and tradition as opposed to strict religious dogma and institutions, hence why we have, to my knowledge, never been responsible for any unfortunate scandals and/or genocides unlike our Catholic brothers (although Catholicism when free from corruption is still a commendable religion and of course, heavily associated with sublime European high art.) I had not heard of Mila Mulroney but am glad to hear of such affability on her and her family's part toward you; although it is typical of South Slavs to be very warm and friendly -- it comes with our scorching summers. As for learning Serbian and Macedonian, I would not chide myself; both are rather particular languages with a complex grammar (at least for Serbian, Macedonian is more simple in that it is the only language, alongside Bulgarian, to not employ declensions.) I grew up speaking Macedonian from absorbing, osmosis style, my parents who spoke it as much as possible with me, and it was not long before I learnt the Macedonian Cyrillic alphabet (virtually the same as the Serbian, just a few characters added and removed) from some 80s television show. Recently I have been trying my hand at learning Serbian, which, after Bulgarian, is our closest linguistic neighbor, as my parents both speak it and happen to be Yugonostalgists who enjoy the shared entertainment and culture that blossomed during the Tito era. You might have heard of the famous rock band Bijelo Dugme, they were the sound of Yugoslavia and made two beautiful folk songs "Djurdjevdan je, a ja nisam s onom koju volim" (It's Saint George's Day, and I'm not with the one I love) and "Lipe cvatu, sve je isto ko i lani" (Linden trees are blooming, all is the same as it was last year) that I would fervently recommend hearing. As a family, we used to go every four years to the capital Skopje for a month in the summer (no fancy hotels, we stayed in my father's childhood bungalow home with his parents), and for a week we would take a train out to Ohrid, where the UNESCO preserved lake and famous ancient churches (St. Jovan of Kaneo can be seen on the cover of a recent edition of National Geographic magazine) were located. I fully believe you would adore the region with its mountains and rocky fresh water beaches, and tourists always have great things to say about the cuisine, which is a bonus. I have not yet visited Serbia, but I have heard nothing but praise from my mother and sister who went to Belgrade, with the latter telling me it reminded her of Western Europe.
Thank you very much, Katie, for your beautiful reply. You certainly make me keen to visit Macedonia. Good on you for keeping your language and I hope that you do find the time to learn Serbian, like your parents. My wife and stepson speak the ekavian variant of Serbian, which is standard and the most commonly spoken, and closer to Macedonian. That is what I am trying to learn now too. However, many Serbs also speak the ijekavian variant, which is standard for Croatian and Bosniak. If you learn Serbian, some knowledge of this variant is useful and virtually unavoidable. Ivo Andrić, the only Yugoslav writer to win the Nobel prize for literature, was a Bosnian Croat. After starting his career in Croatian he switched to writing in Serbian, but while his novels are written in ekavian, he was also a realistic novelist, so his dialogues are often in ijekavian. The Serbs also operate using both the Cyrillic and the Latin alphabets, but that’s really not a problem, as there is a one-to-one correspondence between the letters in the two alphabets. The Serbian Orthodox Church, at least in my experience, only operates in Cyrillic.
Mila Mulroney was born in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, but her father was from Novi Bečej, Vojvodina, Serbia. She was born Milica Pivnički. I met my wife through her cousin, who came to Canada as a refugee after his family lost their home in Mostar. He and his wife named their first child Mila, in Mila Mulroney’s honour. I agree with you that South Slavic people are warm and friendly. I found it unnerving when I first went there how close people would get to me, which in Canada often signifies that someone means to threaten you. I discovered that no threat was intended. People were just being sociable.
God bless you, Katie, and I hope you have a happy Orthodox Easter. Andrew (andrewbaldwin51@yahoo.com)
It is beautiful to hear of your appreciation for Serbia and Macedonia Andrew, and your conversion to the Serbian Orthodox Church as well. I think you have probably observed that religion for Southern Slavs tends to be rooted more in culture and tradition as opposed to strict religious dogma and institutions, hence why we have, to my knowledge, never been responsible for any unfortunate scandals and/or genocides unlike our Catholic brothers (although Catholicism when free from corruption is still a commendable religion and of course, heavily associated with sublime European high art.) I had not heard of Mila Mulroney but am glad to hear of such affability on her and her family's part toward you; although it is typical of South Slavs to be very warm and friendly -- it comes with our scorching summers. As for learning Serbian and Macedonian, I would not chide myself; both are rather particular languages with a complex grammar (at least for Serbian, Macedonian is more simple in that it is the only language, alongside Bulgarian, to not employ declensions.) I grew up speaking Macedonian from absorbing, osmosis style, my parents who spoke it as much as possible with me, and it was not long before I learnt the Macedonian Cyrillic alphabet (virtually the same as the Serbian, just a few characters added and removed) from some 80s television show. Recently I have been trying my hand at learning Serbian, which, after Bulgarian, is our closest linguistic neighbor, as my parents both speak it and happen to be Yugonostalgists who enjoy the shared entertainment and culture that blossomed during the Tito era. You might have heard of the famous rock band Bijelo Dugme, they were the sound of Yugoslavia and made two beautiful folk songs "Djurdjevdan je, a ja nisam s onom koju volim" (It's Saint George's Day, and I'm not with the one I love) and "Lipe cvatu, sve je isto ko i lani" (Linden trees are blooming, all is the same as it was last year) that I would fervently recommend hearing. As a family, we used to go every four years to the capital Skopje for a month in the summer (no fancy hotels, we stayed in my father's childhood bungalow home with his parents), and for a week we would take a train out to Ohrid, where the UNESCO preserved lake and famous ancient churches (St. Jovan of Kaneo can be seen on the cover of a recent edition of National Geographic magazine) were located. I fully believe you would adore the region with its mountains and rocky fresh water beaches, and tourists always have great things to say about the cuisine, which is a bonus. I have not yet visited Serbia, but I have heard nothing but praise from my mother and sister who went to Belgrade, with the latter telling me it reminded her of Western Europe.
Thank you very much, Katie, for your beautiful reply. You certainly make me keen to visit Macedonia. Good on you for keeping your language and I hope that you do find the time to learn Serbian, like your parents. My wife and stepson speak the ekavian variant of Serbian, which is standard and the most commonly spoken, and closer to Macedonian. That is what I am trying to learn now too. However, many Serbs also speak the ijekavian variant, which is standard for Croatian and Bosniak. If you learn Serbian, some knowledge of this variant is useful and virtually unavoidable. Ivo Andrić, the only Yugoslav writer to win the Nobel prize for literature, was a Bosnian Croat. After starting his career in Croatian he switched to writing in Serbian, but while his novels are written in ekavian, he was also a realistic novelist, so his dialogues are often in ijekavian. The Serbs also operate using both the Cyrillic and the Latin alphabets, but that’s really not a problem, as there is a one-to-one correspondence between the letters in the two alphabets. The Serbian Orthodox Church, at least in my experience, only operates in Cyrillic.
Mila Mulroney was born in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, but her father was from Novi Bečej, Vojvodina, Serbia. She was born Milica Pivnički. I met my wife through her cousin, who came to Canada as a refugee after his family lost their home in Mostar. He and his wife named their first child Mila, in Mila Mulroney’s honour. I agree with you that South Slavic people are warm and friendly. I found it unnerving when I first went there how close people would get to me, which in Canada often signifies that someone means to threaten you. I discovered that no threat was intended. People were just being sociable.
God bless you, Katie, and I hope you have a happy Orthodox Easter. Andrew (andrewbaldwin51@yahoo.com)