The Feast of the Holy Cross is an Orthodox Serbian custom that represents one of the main features of the Orthodox faith among Serbs. On that day, a saint is celebrated who is the protector and prayer book before the Lord of the family that celebrates him. There are different opinions about where only Serbs in the Christian world have the Feast of the Holy Cross. Some historians and ethnologists (given that the Serbs were polytheists before adopting Christianity) believe that the feast in Christianity is a substitute for the veneration of local gods, which each tribe or family had.
Others believe that the feast is related to the date of the mass baptism of Serbian tribes in the 9th century, when in memory of that event they began to celebrate the saint who was celebrated at that time or whom they chose as their patron. However, the question arises as to how other Slavic peoples, who were also polytheists and later adopted Christianity, do not have the Feast of the Holy Cross? All this, as well as certain historical data, indicate that it was only from the time of St. Sava, through his efforts and dedication, the Krsna slava became a generally accepted and ingrained custom among Orthodox Serbs.
In 2014, the celebration of the Krsna slava was also included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Register as the first cultural asset from Serbia to be inscribed on that list.
“Among other Orthodox peoples, they celebrate their name day or their birthday, and we, here, celebrate our slava. In fact, a slava is both a name day and a birthday, but not of an individual, but of the entire family, the entire tribe. A spiritual birthday, when our ancestors became Christians, entered the Church of God and were thus born spiritually. And a name day, because from then on they called themselves Christians and have been so to this day,” this is how Serbian Patriarch Pavle spoke about the Krsna slava.
On January 20, the Serbian Orthodox Church and believers celebrate one of the most common slavas among Serbs - Saint John the Baptist, also known as John the Forerunner. John is called the Baptist, because according to religious teaching, he baptized Jesus Christ in the Jordan River, and the Forerunner because he announced the coming of Christ.
Saint John is an example of firm and unshakable faith, honesty, courage and truthfulness.
