The Gorani live in the mountains between Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia. Every year these Slavic Muslim people celebrate spring on St. George’s Day, a meeting opportunity for the entire diaspora.
The story of San Giorgio
There are stories that have fascinated people for centuries. The one of St. George it is perhaps one of the most famous and evocative, which crossed the Middle Ages with its powerful symbolic charge. According to legend, George was a noble knight errant of Christian faith originally from Cappadocia, modern-day Turkey. On the back of his white horse, he arrived in the kingdom of Silene, in Cyrenaica, for save the king’s daughter from the jaws of a dragon, whose destructive force could only be appeased through human sacrifice. As a reward for the noble gesture, the “soldier of Christ” only asked that all the people convert by receiving the baptismothus refusing glory and money.
Although there is no certain historical information about Saint George – except for his martyrdom at the beginning of the 4th century in Palestine – his legend has been loaded with very powerful symbolic meanings, embodying the perennial struggle of good against evil. The iconographic representation of Saint George defeating the dragon it is in fact one of the most widespread in Christian art, in medieval and modern times, in the West as well as in the East. Even if its cult is typically oriental, it in fact reached the western part of Europe at the time of Crusadeswhen the evil dragon symbolized Islam, and Christianity was the sword of truth that defeated it.
The Gorani, the Muslim Slavs who celebrate Saint George
In the Balkans the feast of Saint George, which occurs on May 6 in the Julian calendar, celebrates thearrival of spring and the end of the cold season. There is a people who live in the mountains between southern Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania, who are strongly devoted to the cult of this saint: they are the Gorani, Muslim Slavs converted to Islam in the Ottoman era. Their name derives from the Slavic “gora”, mountain, and they speak a transitional Slavic dialect called Nashinski, which in Gorano dialect means “ourselves”. Despite the conversion to Islam, however, they they continue to celebrate the martyr who defeated the dragon, so much so that for them this is the most important festival of the year: every May 6th, in fact, the entire community celebrates the awakening of nature after the long winter months; but St. George’s Day is also an opportunity to meet and get together: on this day of celebration lto a large diaspora, scattered throughout Europe and the world, returns to her native country. In fact, many Gorani in the diaspora choose St. George’s Day to return to their family lands; for centuries they have emigrated to Istanbul, Vienna, Skopje, Belgrade and today to Western Europe and the United States. This migration, the Pečalbahas always been the fate of the Gorani, fleeing from those mountains they loved but which did not provide enough food for everyone.
The Goran celebrations
On the eve of St. George’s Day, women and girls from Gorani villages wear traditional costumes and they go out to collect branches of flowers, the so-called belice. Always on the eve, the water from the rivers and mountain springs is collected and used to wash the children, so as to toughen them against the forces of evil. But there are numerous celebratory rituals which take place for this occasion: the sacrifice of lambs, bathing in local rivers, the decoration of houses with flower garlands, colored eggs.
Shishtavec it is the largest of the nine villages in Albania where the Gorani live. Between 1945 and 1991, during the communist dictatorship, its inhabitants lived isolated from the rest of the community, incorporated by the “Yugoslavs”, beyond a border that remained impassable for a long time. Due to this prolonged isolation, i Gorani of Albania they no longer share the same customs and customs as the “Yugoslavian” part, today in Kosovo and North Macedonia. In Shishtavec the celebration of St. George’s Day begins with the spectacular horse race, in which representatives of the neighboring villages also take part; the winner of the race, who receives a ram as a gift, is welcomed like a hero in the central square of the village and covered in banknotes. Horses have always had a essential role in the culture of the Gorani: for a long time these faithful companions have in fact allowed them to survive in the local mountains. After the race, the villages begin the celebrations in the squares to the sound of the zurna (a kind of oboe) and gods tapan (large drums), the two key instruments that mark community celebrations. In the afternoon, women in traditional dress dance the kholo, the typical circle dance practiced throughout the Balkans. Women who wear a red skirt are married while those who are not yet married wear a white one.
St. George’s Day in the Balkans and Europe
By virtue of his celebrity, Saint George is celebrated in many countries. In Serbia May 6th is called Dhurđevdan, Saint George’s Day, in fact. The citizens’ association “Otaharin” of Bijeljina, in Bosnia Herzegovinatraditionally celebrates St. George’s Day as the Roma festival oldest and most important. In fact, for the Roma of the Balkans it is called May 6th Ederlezi, the spring festival. Big celebrations also in Prizren, in Kosovo, where the city cathedral gathered the faithful to celebrate the glory of the Saint. In Albania Orthodox Albanians celebrate Dita and Shën GjergjitSt. George’s Day, as well as in Bulgaria. In the Catholic Croatiathere is a party, called Đurđevo observed on April 23 of the Gregorian calendar, the same date on which St. George is celebrated Czech Republic but also in Catalonia (where Sant Jordi is the national patron saint) and in Italy (the feast of San Giorgio in Ragusa is famous). May 6th is also a public holiday Palestine, in the village of al-Khader (Arabic transcription of “St. George”) where the Christian and Muslim communities participate in common celebratory rites. In short, Saint George defeating the dragon is the festival of spring, which has always been a symbol of rebirth, love and return to life.
Photo: courrierdesbalkans.fr
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