On Sunday, March 7, we have prepared an online event Welcome Spring.
With the songs of Slovenian poets, we marked March 8 - Women's Day, March 12 - St. Gregory's Day, and March 21 - the first day of spring and International Poetry Day.
The songs were interpreted by students of supply teaching lessons of Slovenian language from Banja Luka, Slatina, Prijedor and Teslić, as well as many guests who kindly responded to my invitation. We were greeted by Mrs. Eva Jurman from the Institute for Education of the Republic of Slovenia, and at the end of the programme we wished all the best to the members of the Association of Slovenians Triglav Banja Luka, who followed the event on their new premises.
We started the programme with songs about moms. First, our youngest student Marija Mihajlović told a story. Among the songwriters, we singled out Neža Maurer, and we congratulated her on her 90th birthday by choosing her songs.
The recital of songs for children cannot be without songs by Tone Pavček, Anja Štefan, Janez Bitenc, Svetlana Makarovič, and in the programme we also heard songs by other popular authors. We remembered Feri Lainšček - this year's winner of the Prešeren Award. Songs by older poets were also heard: Josip Murn Aleksandrov, Oton Župančič, Lili Novy, Ivan Minatti and Saša Vegra.
I invited my former students to participate, today students in Slovenia and Germany, they all gladly responded and read the poems. The song by Neža Maurer “When I Was a Child” was chosen by Nina Gradič Planko - the first Slovenian language teacher to be sent to this area who laid a solid foundation for teaching. A lecturer from the Slovenian language at the Faculty of Philology in Banja Luka, Assistant Professor Janja Vollmaier Lubej, PhD, greeted us from Maribor. We also had a guest from Novi Sad - Ruth Zlobec, a teacher of supply teaching lessons of Slovenian language in Vojvodina, read a poem about spring and friendship, with which we paid tribute to the legendary Slovenian singer Majda Sepe. Among the guests was Mrs. Vera Papež Adamič, who researched the roots of Slovenians who moved to Slatina. How nice to hear that there are so many more Slovenian language students in Slatina and that families preserve the Slovenian language and culture.
The programme marked Women's Day, the joy of the arrival of spring and the old Slovenian holiday of St. Gregory /Gregorjevo/. It is celebrated on March 12, it used to be the first day of spring. The craftsmen rejoiced that the day had lengthened and that there was no need to work by candlelight, so they threw the light into the water. We know this custom even today - we let the floating houses down the river and rejoice in the light. However, another custom is associated with birds. We say this is the day the birds get married.
The first day of spring, March 21, is also the International Poetry Day. We were accompanied by a special guest - actress, writer and poet Saša Pavček. The students know her well, because she has already been a guest in Banja Luka and Prijedor. The Association of Slovenians Triglav has published a bilingual book of her texts “In the Heart's Pocket”. This year, her book “moment paused” was published in Slovenian, and from this collection is the song “Jablana”, which she recited to us.
Many of us gathered, we called from Banja Luka, Slatina, Prijedor, Teslić, Novi Grad, Ljubljana, Maribor, Paridol, Bled, Novi Sad, Vienna and Erlangen. There were many miles between us but modern technologies prevail over distances and the evening was full of beautiful words.
Barbara Hanuš
Translated by Ana Marjanović
