What is Slava? Serbia's family saint day tradition

Ask a Serb when their slava is and you will get an instant, proud answer. Ask them to explain slava to a foreigner and watch them struggle, because it is one of those things you grow up inside of. Here is the explanation.

One family, one saint

Slava, full name krsna slava, is the Serbian Orthodox tradition of celebrating a family's patron saint. Each family inherits its saint from its ancestors: your slava is your father's slava, and his father's before him. When a woman marries, she takes her husband's family's slava.

The most common slavas are Sveti Nikola (Saint Nicholas, December 19), Sveti Jovan (Saint John, January 20), Đurđevdan (Saint George, May 6) and Aranđelovdan (Archangel Michael, November 21). In 2014, UNESCO inscribed slava on its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

What actually happens

On the morning of the slava, the family prepares the ritual foods. The slavski kolač is a round bread, decorated and blessed. The žito, also called koljivo, is boiled wheat mixed with honey and walnuts, served in memory of ancestors. A candle burns for the saint all day.

Then the guests come. And keep coming. Slava is an open house: family, friends, neighbors, colleagues stop by throughout the day and evening. Nobody needs a formal invitation if they are close to the family. Tables are full from morning to midnight, and the greeting of the day is Srećna slava!, happy slava.

Why it matters

For Serbs abroad, slava is often the strongest thread back home. A family in Chicago or Sydney celebrating Sveti Nikola on December 19 is doing exactly what their great-grandparents did in the same way, with the same bread, the same wheat, the same candle. Few traditions survive migration that intact.

If you are ever invited to a slava, go. Bring something small, say Srećna slava at the door, and pace yourself. The rakija is not optional and neither is the second plate.