XII Slovenian Day was held on June 27, 2021 in Jaružani near Slatina, in the beautiful surroundings of the Nature Park. This event, along with the traditional St. Martin's Day, is a holiday of Slavs.
Every year, the Triglav Association holds this event in the "Slovenian village", Slatina, where many Slovenian families have moved in, bringing their own customs but also accepting the customs of the local population. Last year, the Triglav Association marked this day somewhat more modestly, in a smaller circle of people, adhering to all the measures prescribed by the competent authorities, hoping that the next celebration will be more relaxed and cheerful. This year, we welcomed a little freer socializing, with a larger number of members, but also with our dear friends.
Those present were greeted on behalf of the Association by Mladen Lunić, a member of the Association who is also the host in Slatina. Our gathering was enhanced by Branka Bukovec from the Association for the Development of Voluntary Work Novo Mesto, Dušan Tomažič, journalist of RTV Slovenia who is also the author of the book Slovenian National Minority in BiH, representatives of the Army of the Republic of Slovenia and representatives of Slovenian associations throughout BiH as well as the representatives of national minorities of the City of Banja Luka, namely the Czechs, Italians, Ukrainians, Macedonians and Hungarians, and a representative of the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Srpska.
This day was an opportunity to present typical Slovenian food. In addition to the traditional food of Slovenians and other national minorities, some items that are characteristic of the country of origin of the national minority were presented at the stands.
In the short ceremonial part of the programme, we were the greeted by cheerful Mixed Choir of the Triglav Association "Davorin Jenko" with two songs, and then by guests from Slovenia who came from Novo Mesto. Branka always surprises us by visiting young artists from Slovenia, so she did not skip the tradition this time either. With her came Danijela, a belly dancer who took us to a completely different environment with her beautiful dance, but also Tjaša, a singer who sang some Slovenian evergreen songs.
In the relaxed continuation of socializing, Blaž and Simon entertained us with Slovenian music with wonderful sounds of accordion and guitar.
Although scattered throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, today, as Minister Helena Jaklitsch said in her address to Slovenians around the world on the occasion of 30 years of Slovenian independence, we were together, united in one big Slovenian family.
Ana Marjanović
Translation: Ana Marjanović
