PRESIDENT OF SERBIA BORIS TADIC VISITS BOSTON PARISH
Boston, MA - The first annual Serbian festival in New England was held on Saturday, September 23, 2006 hosted by the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Cambridge, MA. The goal of the festival was to present to our American friends and neighbors the Serbian culture and tradition through folklore, music, art and the traditional Serbian foods. This was the first festival of this kind in New England. The highlight of the celebration was a visit by President of Serbian Boris Tadic together with the Ambassador Ivan Vujacic from Washington D.C. This visit came after President Tadic’s participation at the General Assembly of the UN and a lecture at Harvard Universtiy on Friday evening.
Upon his arrival President Tadic first visited the church where he was greeted by young girls dressed in traditional costumes that offered him bread and salt, welcoming him. President Tadic and Ambassador Vujacic were interested in the details of the church, which was purchased just ten months ago from the Roman Catholic Church. Fr. Aleksandar and Milica Pogorzelski, Church Board president, gave the esteemed guests a tour of the church and answered their questions.
Afterward, the guests went through the exhibit of icons and frescoes in the parish hall, the work of the students of the Academy of the Serbian Orthodox Church for Iconography and Conservation from Belgrade. The icons are replicas of the frescoes that had been destroyed during the Pogrom in Kosovo in 2003.
President Tadic was led by his hosts to the tent area where he was welcomed with thunderous applause from the parishioners of St. Sava, together with their American friends. Fr. Aleksandar began with a prayer and afterwards, on behalf of the Church Board and all of his parishioners, greeted their prominent guests and called on the president to formally open the festival.
In his address, President Tadic said, among other things: “It is a great pleasure for me to open a Serbian festival in America. This is the first time it has happened to me. Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk with our students, following the presentation that the president of Croatia and I had at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. I would like for my stay in Massachusetts and in America in general to be such to improve your life here, and in some way, to live better.
“You know very well that today we are met with very difficult challenges. However, this does not mean, despite all of our difficulties, that we should cease organizing festivals and celebrating. It is of great importance that we do everything in our power to preserve our community and respect our customs...
“On the other hand, I would like to reiterate that which I said to our students at Harvard yesterday, which is that Serbia today is a land of great opportunity. Despite all of our many hardships I want to believe that Serbia is a land of great opportunity.”
At the end of his address President Tadic proclaimed the festival to be opened. Afterwards, he spent some time with his countrymen that live here, far from their homeland. The Serbian atmosphere was all the more present through the music of the brass band Zlatne Uste from New York. Before departing President Tadic requested they play Tamo Daleko one more time, which they did happily.
Finally the prominent guests bid farewell to their gracious hosts and continued their travels, going to Wentworth Institute of Technology where they were greeted by Dr. Zorica Pantic, the President of this esteemed institution, and in the evening they returned to Serbia.
To the delight of all the parishioners the festival lasted until late in the evening. It was nice to see such a large number of our youth and the children for whom there were special activities. It was noticed how our young Serbian boys and girls proudly wore their Serbian sajkace (hats) which were brought from Serbia for this occasion. The folklore group Gracanica performed in the evening. This was the first festival and it is our desire and hope that each one in the future, with God’s help, be better and more successful.
Protojerej Aleksandar Vlajkovic
www.stsavaboston.org