Srećna Nova godina
Serbia's New Year traditions
“Srećna Nova 2024.”, is all I’ve been hearing this week and for good reason. New year is a holiday many Serbs look forward to. Seeing it impact our modern culture I decided to go digging through its history.
When Serbia was trying to separate from the Ottoman Empire it didn’t celebrate it whatsoever. In fact it was used as a day to collect taxes. Talk about a bummer. New year only started to be mildly celebrated under the rule of Miloš Obrenović (1783 - 1860).
His successors organized a New year ballet, under the influence of Napoleon III. This was a huge festival celebration. Some time before midnight, the host would come out and declare:
“The old year has passed away and shall now be buried!”
Then the lights would go out and a coffin would be carried through the room.
When the coffin left the room a chimney sweep would show off the new year, a girl dressed in a white gown. That’s not all. Just before the lights would turn back on a piggy would be set to run around the guests. Who ever caught it would get to keep it.
When Serbia had to switch to the Gregorian calendar (1919) it was left with two New Years. One was celebrated on the 31st and the other on the 14th (Old/Serbian New Year).
Celebrations of New Year were kept exclusively in the capital until 1955.
Josip Broz Tito, the leader of SFRJ, attended the first broadcasted New Year festival. Ever since then it became popular around the entire country.
Today Serbs view New Year as a equivalent of catholic Christmas. We exchange gifts and tell children stories of Santa leaving present on the 1st of January.
And that’s the history. I hope you all had a merry Christmas and will have a wonderful and successful new year.