On Saturday, 29 June 2013, it was raining in the morning. Weather was not promising and we, Slovenians of Banja Luka, who have been preparing for our Slovenian day for months were rather worried.
There is an old saying that there is bright sunshine after the rain and indeed it was like that this time, too. Slatina, where numerous Slovenian families moved to in different times, primarily from Kras and Primorska, was together with us ready to welcome guests. There were stands where products were shown and offered by Mercator, KUD Piskavica, Women’s Society »Woman’s Smile« from Laktaši and the host, Association of Slovenians »Triglav« Banjaluka.
This year, on our stand we exhibited four bilingual books in Serbian and Slovenian, by authors and poets from Dolenjska and Banja Luka, as well as our bulletin published annually and a bulletin written at the end of the school year by students of supply teaching lessons of Slovenian together with their teacher Barbara Hanuš. Special attention on our stand was given to hayracks. Many people were interested in them and there were quite a lot of questions about them. Luckily, the evening before we attended a lecture on hayracks, identity of Slovenian architecture. Mrs. Vesna Vukšinič Zmaić from Slovenian Emigrants’ Society of the Republic of Slovenia brought professor Borut Juvanec, PhD, from Faculty of Architecture as a guest and expert for vernacular architecture. Anyway, we managed to remember some things from the lecture and succeeded in answering questions to those who wanted to know more about the structure we can rarely see in our area. A true hayrack can be found in Slatina near the house of our member Mladen Lunić. We had many guests at the event, including Minister of the Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians Abroad Tina Komel, Head of Office Sandi Bonaca, representatives from the Slovenian Emigrants’ Society, representatives from Slovenian Academy of Science and Art SAZU, World Slovenian Congress Mr. Franci Feltrin, Luka Klopčič, Mayor of Novo mesto Alojzij Muhič, Mrs. Branka Bukovec from the Society for the Development of Voluntary Work Novo mesto, Head of municipality of Laktaši, head of Consular Office of the Republic of Slovenia in Banja Luka Branko Zupanc, many guests from Slovenian associations active in other towns of BiH, Republic of Serbia, representatives of national minorities, members of our association and many friends.
All the attendees enjoyed the songs of Slovenian choirs, Camerata Slovenica from Sarajevo, our choir “Davorin Jenko”, dancing by ensemble from Novi Sad and accordion players from Novo mesto. The audience was the most pleased by our youngest members. Only six months did they learn how to dance Slovenian dances. Together with their teacher Mrs. Majda Nemanič and their peers from the children folklore group Kres from Novo mesto they made a great folklore performance.
Nataša Kajmaković
