Every year on February 8th, Slovenia celebrates the Slovenian cultural holiday - the day when the greatest Slovenian poet France Prešeren passed away.
That is why it is called Prešeren Day. It is also a national holiday, which means that it is a day off and various events dedicated to Prešeren and Slovenian culture are held throughout the country. Admission to cultural institutions (museums, galleries, etc.) is free on this day. The central event is a national celebration on the eve of the holiday, at which the annual Prešeren Awards are presented to the most deserving individuals in the field of culture.
This year's Slovenian cultural holiday was celebrated in a special way at the Triglav Association of Slovenians in Banja Luka on Thursday, February 20, 2025, on the Association's premises. We called the event “France Prešeren in Banja Luka”. We invited board members and members of the Association, students of Slovenian language classes, and parents of children attending Slovenian classes. The event was also attended by the Consul General of the Republic of Slovenia in Banja Luka, Mr. Miha Vilar.
Together with the members of the Association, Marija, Dubravka, Zdenka and Mira, we decorated the premises of the Association, all in the name of the greatest Slovenian poet. I borrowed many different books, picture books and biographies about Prešeren from the library in Murska Sobota, so we also equipped a corner with displayed books. The central theme of the event was France Prešeren and his most famous song Zdravljica. Student Marija read an interesting essay about how we perceive the poet today and where his popularity comes from. Student Milica presented the circumstances of the creation of the song Zdravljica and its path to becoming the most important song in independent Slovenia - the 7th stanza of Zdravljica is the national anthem of the Republic of Slovenia. Students of Slovenian classes recited one stanza of Zdravljica each using a paper theater (kamishibaj). We enriched the famous verses with artistic illustrations by Damijan Stepančič from the Zdravljica picture book. The seventh stanza – the anthem – was recited together by all the students in Slovenian and Serbian.
Then, all of us present read the anthem together, which everyone believed to be something special and unique. It does not glorify just one nation, like most anthems, but rather advocates peace, freedom and good neighborly relations for all the nations of the world. That is why I added the idea that the Slovenian anthem could also be a kind of prayer form for peace in the world, which we all agreed with. Among the audience, we also found several brave individuals who recited Prešeren’s verses. A member of the Association, Mrs. Nataša Kajmaković, read Prešeren’s ballad The Water Man with great emotion, which later sparked an interesting discussion about who the mysterious seducer who ruined the beautiful Urška was. The program was enriched with clarinet sounds by Nikša Vukmanović, a member of the children’s folklore group, and his performance was special for him, because it was his first public performance.
At the end of the official part of the meeting, the president of the Association, Mr. Mladen Lunić, addressed the gathering. He proudly presented the new issue of the newspaper of the Association of Slovenians Triglav Banja Luka – Bulletin, which shows how dedicated the members of the Association are to preserving the Slovenian identity in Banja Luka and Slatina. This was followed by a pleasant and cordial gathering of all those gathered over a modest feast, who spontaneously told stories about their encounters with Prešeren, and all of them boasted that they knew at least a little of his poetry, and some, like Mrs. Nataša, quite a lot.
So what the writer Josip Stritar wrote back in 1866 will still be valid:
“What Shakespeare is to the English, Racine to the French, Dante to the Italians, Goethe to the Germans, Pushkin to the Russians, Mickiewicz to the Poles – that is Prešeren to the Slovenians.
Metoda Perger
