Our last holiday in Macedonia

Here Olivia is wearing her beautiful Easter dress from Grams. I can't get her to smile when I'm taking pictures because she is looking very intently at the camera. :)




Pepi gave Sawyer this chocolate Easter egg. There was a toy car inside!


Neighbors brought by red Easter eggs for the children. The red coloring stands for the blood of Jesus.



With only a little more than three weeks left for us in Macedonia, Easter was the last holiday that we will celebrate here. It was a very non-traditional Easter for us but it was still nice. We had a great Easter service with the Lifeway team that is here. The worship and teaching were led by our dear friend B. Afterwards, we ate sandwiches and chips with the team and then headed home for a picnic in the back yard with our landlords Evka and Blaze.

The custom of the Orthodox Macedonians is to go to the church the night before Easter. They walk around the church three times and then crack and eat eggs. That is what my neighbors were doing Saturday night.

This year, once again, our family continued our tradition of using the Resurrection Eggs with Sawyer. He absolutely loves them and we are just hoping that the truth of the gospel is sinking into his little heart.

Today is Vodici

Today is the Orthodox Christian holiday Vodici. You can see my blog post from this holiday last year. We thought the cross throwing would be this morning at 10 a.m. so we went to the Vardar hoping to see it but they changed the times from last year.
http://ericjill.blogspot.com/2009/01/vodici-january-19th.html

I found some good information about Vodici on travel2macedonia.com.mk. The article below is from that website:

Religious holiday
Bogojavlenie - Vodici (Baptism of Jesus Christ)

Celebrated on Jan 19

One of the greatest Christian holidays, Vodici (Baptism of Jesus Christ), has been celebrated since the second century. In the river Jordan, Saint John the Baptist, baptized Jesus Christ.
This event is known as Bogojavlenie, because by the act of the baptism of God has finally appeared as Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The catch of the cross means unification of the human with Jesus Christ.
The tradition of throwing the Cross in Macedonia is old 20 years, while the holiday is being celebrated for more than 2000 years by the Orthodox Christians.
Celebration of the day of St. John the Baptist by performing a unique ceremony of throwing the cross into the waters of a lake or river.
During this unique event, the waters of the lake are being baptized by the high priest by throwing the cross into the water, but the real attraction is the people jumping into the cold waters of the lake trying to find the cross! The one who finds it is believed to be blessed for the whole of next year and becomes a kind of local hero. This event is accompanied by 30 to 40,000 guests every year and no wonder, since hot rakiya (grape spirit) is being served all over the places and for free!

Sreken Bozik! (Merry Christmas)

Today is Christmas here in Macedonia. Last night we were invited to our landlords home for Batnik (Christmas Eve)dinner. The video of Sawyer shows a tradition where everyone eats bread and the person who gets the coin in their piece will have an especially great year. The pita we ate had three rows to represent all the males present for the dinner. The pita pie was made of cheese and leeks. We also ate cabbage rolls, bread, cakes, and cookies.

Pictures - December '09

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Bajram

Earlier this week, the Ramazan season ended for Muslims and Bajram was celebrated. We were invited to Sheni's mother's home. He and his wife were very hospitable. They have a son, Kimcho, that is four years old, like Sawyer, so they had a good time playing together. Kimcho did some traditional Roma dancing for us. Also down the street was a huge circle of women dancing to band music. We had quite a feast with traditional salads, several meats including goat, and best of all-- baklava for dessert!

Ramadan

Just like in the southeast United States where it’s almost impossible to drive anywhere without seeing a Christian church, here it is almost impossible to drive anywhere without seeing a mosque and minaret. Ramadan (or Ramazan) is a Muslim holiday that is being celebrated here in Macedonia and all around the world at this time. Ramadan is from August 22nd until September 20th. The Muslim world will be fasting and praying during these days. Macedonia has the 4th largest Muslim population in Europe, which makes up 30% of the population. Only the European countries of Kosovo, Albania, and Bosnia-Herzegovina have more Muslims. It is estimated that there are 600,000 Muslims in this small country of Macedonia. The majority of the Roma people living in Macedonia claim to be Muslim. Their ancestors adopted Islam after the Ottoman Empire (Turks) conquered the Balkans.

Gjurgovden Picnic in Topaana

Gjurgovden is the holiday celebrating St. George's Day. Here are pictures from a picnic we attended. Roasted lamb was served, which is the traditional food for this holiday. There were also salads, baklava, chicken, burek, and other foods at the picnic. Eric and I had the pleasure of meeting the American ambassador to Macedonia. Sawyer enjoyed playing soccer with the other Roma children at the picnic and we all enjoyed the music. All of the people in the red shirts are the staff at the Roma educational center.

An interesting tradition for this holiday is that many Roma families clean and even paint their homes prior to this holiday. My friend Mamyde and many many others were painting their homes the week before this holiday. Everything looked so fresh and clean! Here's something I read: "Another tradition associated with this holiday is the cutting of tree branches which are placed on the doorways of homes to signify health and happiness for the upcoming year." I'm glad I read this because I've often wondered why there were small branches beside doors.

A Roma band at our house

This past weekend was the Orthodox Easter here in Macedonia. This picture shows Sawyer with our neighbor, Eli, cracking eggs. Many people have given us hard boiled eggs dyed red. I was reading online (http://faq.macedonia.org/religion/religious.holidays.html#veligden) that the red color symbolises the coming happiness in the resurrection. I thank my God for the resurrection of Jesus Christ! I'm humming the song now - Oh the wonderful cross- "all who gather here by grace draw near and bless your name"...
Even though the majority of the Roma people living here in Skopje are Muslim, some groups of Roma go door to door playing music for Easter to earn a little money. On Monday, Pepi, my language helper, and I were right in the middle of studying when I heard this loud band playing down the street. A few minutes later they were playing at our home! The band sounded incredible as you will hear in the video clip!

a crane? a dinosaur? oh...a lamb!

This afternoon we had an interesting time at the butcher shop. The three of us were walking around the green market and made our way to our favorite butcher shop. Sawyer and I always wait outside the store on Eric because I don't do well in a small shop with raw meat surrounding me (especially now that I'm pregnant!). So Sawyer and I were waiting outside the shop but we couldn't help noticing through the windows a large abundance of some fresh meat hanging from the ceiling. I couldn't identify the animal right off. It's not a familiar animal that we are use to seeing in the butcher shop. I was wondering..."Is it a crane?". It looked like some sort of bird staring back at me with it's eyes and teeth still intact. There were so many hanging right in the front window. I turned Sawyer's stroller away from the shop so that he and I could look at something else but the meat shop across the alley also had these mysterious animals hanging up in their store for sale. Sawyer pointed to the animals hanging and said "Dinosaur"! The head and teeth really did look like those flying dinosaurs! Well they ended up being lamb. Neither Sawyer or I had made good guesses, ha! My neighbor just told me that lamb is what is cooked for Easter and the Orthodox Easter will be this Sunday. Goes to show you just never know what you'll see around here:). Each day truly is an adventure!

April Fools Day

Here in Macedonia April 1st is called "The Day of the Joke". Children dress up in costumes. Sawyer was a bumblebee since he loves that song "I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee".

Eric had a joke played on him today. It was pretty funny! Another American friend living here called him and told him about the new Burger King in our city. Eric believed him and got excited for a few minutes before he realized it wasn't true!:) Of course I would love for Burger King to come here--better yet, Chick-Fil-A or Arby's!

Happy International Women's Day!

Today, March 8th, is Women's Day. Macedonians celebrate this holiday by taking a flower or small gift to the important women that they love and respect. Here's a picture of Sawyer from Friday when he took presents to his teachers for this holiday. Mother's Day is not celebrated here, so this is the closest holiday to that occasion. Today, as we drove to and from church, there were swarms of people out buying flowers from sellers on the sidewalks.

The Day of Forgiveness (Prochka)

Yesterday the Macedonians celebrated an old Orthodox Holiday called The Day of Forgiveness, or Prochka. I have really enjoyed learning about their holidays since living here. Understanding their holidays and customs gives me insight into their culture and belief system. Prochka is the beginning of Easter celebrations (or Lent Fast) and it includes Christian and pagan customs.
On this day each year, grown daughters and sons visit their parent's homes to ask them for forgiveness for anything they have did wrong against their parents. They take their parents something sweet, like cookies, and some coffee to show their parents respect. Pepi told me that now days the children don't literally ask their parents for forgiveness anymore. They just take the sweets as a gift and that symbolizes that they want to be forgiven. They of course will kiss and hug their parents. They are very affectionate people.
Also on this day there are carnivals in different Macedonian cities. There are parades with many masked people. I've watched some YouTube clips about this holiday to see what it's all about. I've never been to Mardi Gras but this does seem similar.

Vodici - January 19th

Today is a holiday in America and Macedonia, but it's two different occasions. Martin Luther King is observed today in the U.S.A. Today in Macedonia is Vodici, the Orthodox holiday remembering the day when Jesus was baptized. The Macedonian word for water is "voda" so the name of the holiday has "water" in it since Jesus was baptized in the water.


I was so happy to be able to witness a Macedonian custom today at the Vardar River. A contest was being held only about a 10 minute walk away from my home. Pepi, Sawyer, and I walked to this contest. Someone on the top of the bridge threw down a cross and the first person to swim to get the cross is the winner. There was a lady that entered the contest also this year which is not usual. Once the contest started it went really fast because everyone was so cold!! Everything happened so fast that I couldn't see the winner. The contestants were eager to get out of the water as soon as the contest ended! (I sure would be too!!) Pepi says that the winner will receive a big prize like a television or some other electronic.

Yes it is very cold here but several brave Macedonians swam in the Vardar River today. They were all trying to get the cross that was dropped down from the bridge. It is a yearly Orthodox custom for Vodici.

Old New Years

Not too excited about his spinach pie...

Old New Years is celebrated here in Macedonia in the middle of January. Evka and Blaze (our landlords) made us a spinach and leeks pie and some grafche beans (like what we ate during the Macedonian Christmas). Eric was asked to break the bread because he is the head of our home. The center of the pie was all for Sawyer because he is the "center of our family", according to Evka. :)
It was a delicious lunch!

Hristos Se Rodi! Christ is Born!

Today is Christmas here in Macedonia. The Orthodox Christian calendar has Christmas on Jan. 7th. Today there was a nice service at church. There was beautiful music as we worshipped together "Hristos se rodi! (Christ is born!)" I enjoyed singing traditional Christmas songs in the Macedonian language (at least trying to). :) Many times during the service the congregation would say out loud in unison, "Hristos se rodi!".

Yesterday for Christmas Eve (Jan. 6th) we were invited to our landlords home for a traditional Christmas meal. This was really an honor for us. Our family was given a small baked loaf of bread. Eric, being the head of our home, broke the bread into small pieces and handed Sawyer and I our pieces. There was a coin in the bread and whoever got that piece, according to tradition, will have a lucky year. Well, Sawyer was the lucky recipient of the coin in our family and Blaze, our landlord, got the coin in the loaf for his family. His wife, Evka, was very happy for him and gave him a big kiss.
Next, we ate some cabbage pie. Evka used a pastry dough to form rings on the outside of the pie. Each ring represented the males present at the dinner. So there was a ring for Blaze, Eric, and Sawyer. In the middle of each ring was cabbage, except for the center, which was full of minced meat. We also had cabbage rolls. Do you see a pattern of cabbage here?? Yes cabbage is eaten in abundance here, and I'm trying to adjust to that (Eric has even been offered cabbage juice here in Macedonia. He drank 4 glasses! He did like it, but kept having his glass filled with a little protest). The cabbage rolls are filled with cooked rice and leeks. We also had grafche (white beans with peppers) and a delicious spread of desserts, of which Sawyer helped himself.

There is also another interesting tradition here for Christmas Eve. Children go around early on Christmas Eve morning and sing carols at homes for houses. It was fun for me to hear three sweet Roma children sing outside my home. I fixed baggies of candy to hand out to the children, which included chocolates and a candycane with the story of the candycane, which Pepi had graciously translated into Macedonian for me.