For Bozhik, most of the other Peace Corps volunteers throughout Macedonia, especially in my MAK 16 class, spent the holiday with their old host families from PST. I decided to stay with my new host family in Obleshevo and it was really interesting and often fun cultural experience. The festivities started on Thursday night, the night before the day before Christmas (which is called Badnik). I went with my host parents to a large bonfire in an old soccer field on the outskirts of my village, and I spent most of the night making new friends, watching people dance the oro in the cold rain, and drinking hot rakija. Hot rakija has to be my favorite of the national drinks because while it is super strong, it has a nice taste to it (sugar helps) and keeps you warm in the cold Macedonian winter. I don't know if it tops drinking delicious hot mulled wine in the center of Krakow a few Decembers ago, but I'll take it.
The next day was Badnik, and there wasn't a whole lot going on until the large dinner we had around 8pm. It was by far the most ceremonial meal I've had since I've been in Macedonia. There were no guests (aside from me) outside of the immediate family. Once the food was all ready to go on the table, my host grandfather (dedo) went outside the room to invite Jesus to the meal, and then set aside a small piece of bread for him at the table. Once it was all set, we started on our meal, all without meat, and included sarma (cabbage rolls stuffed with rice), phyllo-dough pastry (cant remember the name) similar to burek, and assorted fruits and nuts. For drinks we had kompot (sort of like a non-alcoholic sangria) and rakija, along with a bottle of wine that I bought to share with everyone. Finally, on the actual day of Christmas, we went na gosti to my host mother Silvana's parents' house in Kocani for a golem ruchek (big lunch). It was overall pretty low-key compared to the previous days, but enjoyable nonetheless. Photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150478789449117.365947.525244116&type=1&l=d5444ac91c
After a few days off, next on the agenda was the Old New Year, and a bunch of volunteers from all over Macedonia decided to make the trek to the renowned Vevchani Carnival. Located in a small village about 30 min from the town of Ohrid, the Carnival has been known throughout Macedonia as the place to go for Old New Year. It didn't disappoint. The costumes were crazy and creative, everyone had a great time, and I'd definitely go back again next year. I don't want to do a complete play-by-play here, but the first day (friday) was the opening parade, which involved seeing all the costumes/masks on display, along with the burning of the Greek flag wrapped over a wooden coffin. Yeah, Greece isn't super popular here in the Republic of Macedonia.
For Day Two, we expected the main event to be a bonfire where all the masks were burned in the town centre, but additional highlights included a massive snowball war ('fight' is too mild for this one) where we were initially chucking snowballs at each other in our small group of 5 or so before locals got involved, and it escalated into all-out urban warfare with a like six neighborhood kids (and passing locals...one of which dressed as a SS officer). They tried hiding behind parked cars so eventually we started charging them and it was just crazy fun. In the midst of all this, we were invited to join a group of people dressed as trees to go na gosti with them at random houses in Vevcani. So we marched off with them, still trying to defend ourselves from the 'snipers' continuing the snowball war, until we reached the first house, which welcomed us with hot rakija and free food. We stayed there for about 20 minutes, then we went off to another house...then another...eventually it was time to go to the bonfire after 6 houses or so and we proceeded to dance around the fire for a while before a few people from our group needed to go catch a bus. At that point the Carnival was pretty much over, so we just retreated back to our hotel to relax, find food, and look at the all crazy pictures from the weekend. Here are some of them: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150478846599117.365957.525244116&type=1&l=afce36c0bd
0 comments:
Post a Comment