Slava - History

History

The Slava (glorification) is a result of the Serbs' Christianization transforming the Indo-European custom of communal feasts into a Christian custom. Many elements of Serbian pre-Christian culture have lived on in Christianity. The Serbs were a polytheistic Slavic tribe that believed in several gods, such as Svetovid (God of war, fertility and abundance) and Dažbog (Sun god, a culture hero and a source of wealth and power). Each household had a protective god (protector of the family) that it venerated, a custom that was assimilated into Serbian Christianity. Christian saints replaced the Slavic deities, and the ritual itself survives as a national custom of the Serbs.

• Svetovid > Saint Vitus > Vidovdan
• Perun > Saint Elijah > Ilindan
• Veles > Saint Nicholas > Nikoljdan

The custom in its modern state was created with the exposure to Christianity during the reign of emperor Heraclius (610-641) or later at the time of the final Christianization of the Serbs during the rule of Basil I (867-886) by Byzantine missionairies of Constantinople Cyril and Methodius.

According to Constantine's DAI a Serbian tribe named „Pagani“ (what Constantine himself translates as “unbaptized in the Slavic tongue” (DAI, 29, 81) indicates that the others were already Christianized. Some believe that the day of the mass baptism itself was taken as the saint protector, others claim that each clan adopted its collective protector, while others still claim that the Slava is simply the saint which replaced a pre-existing pagan god-protector. At times, a new Slava would be adopted, should a saint be believed to have interceded for some sort of deliverance (i.e., from illness or affliction). The new saint would be adopted in lieu of the old, whose day would still be marked by a lighting of a candle, with much less fanfare.

Some also believe the Slava to be a remnant from Slavic paganism which had a myriad of gods before adopting Christianity. The Serbs in particular held strongly onto their old Slavic religion That the Slava often varies according to geographical regions is claimed as evidence of the above. But even this notion need not contradict the traditional explanation that the Slava is celebrated on the day of christening of the first-baptized ancestor, and in fact, it may very well underscore it.

The Slava was canonically introduced by Archbishop Saint Sava of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

"Gde je Slava, tu je Srbin"
("Where there is a Slava, there is a Serb")