2018Slava - Celebration of Family Saint Patron's Day - First Day Cover

Slava, celebration of family saint patron’s day, represents a ritual dedicated to a certain Christian saint who is believed to be a family’s patron saint and the giver of welfare. Celebrating a patron saint is practiced by a majority of Orthodox Christian families on the territory of Serbia as a significant family holiday with the participation of individual families and their guests – members of wider kinship, neighbours, friends. The Serbs experience patron saint’s day as a way of expressing national identity and they are the bearers of this tradition, but the celebration of a family patron saint are also practiced by Orthodox Christian families of some other ethnic communities in Serbia.

In the home of a family, on patron saint’s day a candle is lit during the performing of the ritual, The Lord’s Prayer is said and a ritual cutting of the Slava cake is performed – which necessarily has an impressed symbol IС ХС НI KA – in a way that it is overflowed with wine, cut in the shape of the cross, then it is turned, lifted up and broken in four parts. During the ritual the words of gratitude and prayers for welfare are said to the patron saint. Ritual cutting of the cake is performed by all the members of the family at their home, but on the other hand, it is a common practice to take the Slava cake to church, and in some cases a family welcomes their priest at home to cut the cake. An important part of the celebration of a patron saint is a feast which gathers together the whole family and their cousins and friends.

Patron saint’s day is a vital element of our intangible cultural heritage and in 2014 it was entered on UNESCO Representative list of Intangible cultural heritage of the humankind.

St. Stephen, 9 January – It is celebrated as the third day of Christmas, and some families celebrate it as their family patron saint day. The custom is that on that day the Christmas straw is taken out of a home.

Motif on stamp: St. Stephen, (icon, late 19th or early 20th century, Sombor), Slava cake, cresset and letter–mold for Slava cake.

Motif on FDC: St. Stephen, (icon, 19th century, Debeljača).

Photographs of exhibits of Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade, by author Ivana Masniković Antić MA, were used for motifs of stamps and envelopes.

Expert collaboration: Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade.

Icon and engravings are located in the collection of the Matica Srpska Gallery in Novi Sad.