Slava (tradition)

Slava (Слава, ˈslâʋa) is a tradition of the ritual of glorification of one's family's patron saint, found mainly among Serbian Orthodox Christians. The family celebrates the Slava annually on the saint's feast day. In 2014 it was inscribed in UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists of Serbia. The Slava is a family's annual ceremony and veneration of their patron saint. It is a tribute to the family's first ancestor who was baptized into Christianity, with its presiding saint. The family's patron saint is passed down from father to son and only males are allowed to carry out the Slava's rituals. Upon marriage, women typically adopt the patron saint of their spouse although it is not uncommon for them to continue celebrating their native family's saint as well (in which case the secondary one is known as preslava). Close friends and family gather at the home for a ritual feast. Although a religious ceremony for the purpose of saint veneration, the family's intent behind the celebration is for "the good health of the living" as well as for a "general remembrance of the souls of the departed family members". The tradition is an important ethnic marker of Serbian identity. The slogan: Где је слава, ту је Србин (Where there is a Slava, there is a Serb) was raised as a Serbian national identifier by Miloš Milojević after his travel to Kosovo and Metohija in 1871–1877. Serbs usually regard the Slava as their most significant and most solemn feast day. The tradition is also very well preserved among the Serbs worldwide. Besides present day Serbia, Slava is commonly celebrated amongst ethnic Serbs living in neighbouring Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro. Despite the tradition being inherently tied to Serbian Orthodox Christianity it is also practiced to a lesser extent amongst Catholic and Muslim ethnicities in the region with such examples as the Catholics from the Bay of Kotor, and Gorani living in present-day southern Kosovo. Furthermore, Slava is celebrated by Macedonians and a similar tradition can found in Western Bulgaria, but also among some Vlachs and Aromanians.