Prayers
 
The "Slava"
"The Word became flesh and made his dweling among us.
We have seen his glory..."(John 1, 14)
It was St. Sava who introduced the ritual of the baptismal Slava, or Patron Saint's Day, into practice on a liturgical basis. Since the time of St. Sava, this ritual and its accompanying customs gradually assumed the form it has today. The present aspect of this ritual was finally formed by Mihajlo, the Metropolitan of Serbia, in 1862. Among the numerous appellations of this custom in the past, some of which are still in use today, the most current ones are: "querns slava" (baptismal slava) and "svecari" ( its celebrants).

Consecrating the Water

In some parts of the country, as in Vojvodina, Belgrade and elsewhere, the custom is for the priest to go to the homes of the celebrants before the day of the Slava itself and to bless the water. The housewife places before the household icon, a candle, a censer and incense and lights the thurible. The priest then blesses the water which the housewife will use to knead the flour for the Slave cake. For that occasion it is necessary to prepare the following: a censer, a flame (or a briquette made of special coal), a candlestick and incense, as well as a posy of sweet basil and a vessel of clear water. All this has to be on a table facing the icon of the relevant Slava which hangs on the eastern wall of the room.

The housewife treats the consecrated water as something sacred. She handles it with care and puts it in a specific place. Then, on the eve of the Slava, when she has completed all the preparations for the following day, she uses this water and takes flour to knead the dough for the Slava cake, adding the requisite amount of salt and yeast. In some regions the Slave begins already on the prior evening with a supper, because liturgically regarded, that is already a new day, that is, the Slava day and vespers and the wake are held for the next day. Nevertheless, it is rare for the Slava cake to be cut at that time as this is done on the very day of the Slava.

Going to Church

On the morning of the lava, the cake, a wheat cereal dish, and red wine are carried to the church. In the church, the joint consecration of the wheat dish and blessing of the bread and wine is performed and then the priest pours wine over each dish of wheat cereal and cuts each cake separately. At this time, the celebrant, before the commencement of the holy liturgy, offers a list of the living and deceased members of the family for the purpose of having their names mentioned and the wafers placed on the oblation table - for the good health of the living and the peace of the soul of the deceased.

The head of the family, or host, then gives his gifts to the church - the incense, the oil and the wine, as much as he is able to. In more recent times, it is increasingly frequent for money to be offered for the church's needs.

Cutting the Cake in the Home

In the home where there is an inherited practice or where a new one is being introduced, the act of cutting the cake is done at home, with the following procedure:
On the eve of the Slava or early the next morning, all the necessities for the ritual should be placed on a table facing the icon and the east: the cake, the wheat cereal, a glass of red wine, a candlestick with a candle, a list of the living members of the family for remembrance in the prayer, as well as a small thurible with a briquette and a box of matches. Next to the wine there should be a small spoon and a knife next to the cake. The candle is lit just prior to the start of the ritual end can be lit even earlier while the censer was burning throughout the night.

When the priest arrives in the celebrants' home, every thing is on the table. After the day's greetings are spoken, the head of the family makes the sign of the cross before the candle and lights it. After the initial invocation, the Lord's prayer and the troparion of the Slava have been recited, the priest speaks a prayer for the sanctification of the wheat. During this time, the icon, candle, cake, wheat, wine and room and the household members and guests are a11 blessed. This is immediately followed by the priest, who without interrupting his words, cuts the cake and then the singing of the troparion starts.

Consecrating and Cutting the Cake

All the major ritual acts and ritual materials during the Slava celebration, stem directly from the Divine Liturgy, and, broadly interpreted, from the Church. This is what embodies the church character of the Slava. This ritual, as well as all the other church rites, represents a form of communication with God and that is why every prayer is personally intoned and all of them - except those referring to individual persons, - are plural in form, this being a fact that expresses the universal nature of prayer, just as is done in the Divine Liturgy in which we pray for all of us, for the whole world.

In this catholicity, no individual is omitted regardless of how small or insignificant he may be while the grammatical plural form does not mean an additional number, but rather the totality of the community.

The priest in his prayer first invokes the Lord Jesus Christ calling upon him to bless the bread and wine and then pronounces the following words three times: "Our Lord Jesus Christ bless this wine and bread with your Sacred Spirit always now end forever end ever. Amen." Then with both his bands, the priest raises the bread and turning to the icon towards the east, he says: "Our Father, we offer You this for the glory end honour of Saint... (meaning the particular saint of the household) and with his prayers accept, All merciful One, this sacrifice, in your celestial altar."

He then cuts the cake along its lower crust with the mark of the cross made with some wine poured over it.
The cake is then turned about by the priest, the host end all those present, in a circular manner from left to right, while the troparion is sung. The same troparions are sung at weddings end when the deacons, presbyters end bishops are ordained. Turning the cake, in a circle means eternity, for the circle is a symbol of eternity.

Following this, the cake is broken into half end the halves are placed on their lower crusts, towards each other so that the soft part of the bread is turned upward. These ere then kissed by the priest end the host three times. The priest says: "Christ is among us" and the host answers: "He is, indeed, and will ever be." While the troparions are sung, the cake is turned around by all those present-family members and guests alike. 1f there are too many of them, those who are closest turn the cake and those further away are in contact with the cake by placing their bends on the shoulders of the persons in front of them. This action is rarer in tire home but very frequent when a church, school, society end the like are celebrating their Slava, where the coke is also cut ceremonially and a large number of worshippers are present.

After the kissing of the Slava cake takes place, the singing of the troparious begins. This has become a part of this ritual from the holiday wakes and matins. This is followed by the litany in which prayers are said for the people, the archbishops, the Serbian Orthodox Christians and finally for the members of the household, each by name. Finally, the congratulations are in order.

The Slava Dinner

The Slava dinner as all the ritual offerings, does not mean food for the sake of food, but it is a common ritual of eating and drinking. That is why at a host's Slava, his home is not only a hospitable one but at the same time a kind of shrine: both the home and the family are a church, a community, where God is offered religious thoughts, wishes, thank-fullness and where guests are welcomed as by the biblical father Abraham, who welcomed three strange, mysterious travellers.

Aspects of Slava Celebrations

The eucharistic branch has not alone grown into the family and that is why there are not only family Slavas but also other forms of this ritual. Firstly, we have seen that the family Slava grew out of a church rite. In addition to a church Slava, there are also town and village Slavas which we call the covenant Slava and which signifies the day and ritual of a covenant. The customary part, that is, its external aspect, differs de-pending on the place and time; but its ritual aspect is the same.

In old Dubrovnik there were brotherhoods and their Slavas. In emulation of this and relying on the covenant and church Slavas, the home Slava developed into one or several forms of this holiday. Thus, for example, it is known that St. Sava was inaugurated as a school Slava by Prince Milos back in 1841. It is also known that in the previous century, on St. Sava's Day, schoolchildren were given a "recreational day off".

In the above-mentioned Slavas, the ritual is the same as in the family or church ones. The litany mentions the names of the family members, that is, of those who are the Slava hosts for that year and those who have accepted to be the hosts of the Slava the next year, and there is general mention of all the participants in the ritual. The old host surrenders the Slava to his successor of the following year, by giving him a half, sometimes a quarter, of the Slava cake.

In the same way, the father surrenders the Slava to his son and this occurs when the son takes up his own household, either because he goes to live in another town or will be living elsewhere but in the same locality. It is mistaken practice, which has become current in some places since the end of the second World War, for sons not to celebrate the Slava while their fathers are still living or else for the eldest son to take up the Slava. It is the duty of the father to give his son the Slava, so that he, too, should celebrate it. If the father does not wish to do so, for whatever reason, it is necessary for him to consult his official priest and decide with him about passing the Slava on. In that case, the son has not com-mitted an offence against his father and the Slava.

When the Austro-Hungarian Empire occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, the use of the Cyrillic alphabet, singing to the accompaniment of the "gusle" (a one-stringed instrument), and even celebrating the Slava was prohibited. As the Serbs refused to give up their Slavas, the then government issued a decree allowing the Slava celebration on condition that a permit had to be obtained beforehand and this meant paying a tax on the Slava. The permit read as follows: "So-and-so is allowed to celebrate St. Ivan's Day for 24 hours". By St. Ivan was meant St. John the Baptist's Day.

A community usually begins celebrating the Slava, the year it is founded and sometimes later. A church begins this celebration when the construction work is finished and the church consecrated. But there is also a different practice where by the Slava of a newly - built church is celebrated while the building work is still in progress. The church of St. Sava in Belgrade, for instance celebrates its Slava although the building itself is not yet completed.

The Baptismal Slava, regarded from the viewpoint of its internal qualities, is a phenomenon manifesting the fact that Ser-bian Orthodoxy has deeply understood the meaning and being of the Church and has most adequately expressed its perception and ex-perience of the Church as an eternal, incommensurable community of God and men.

In this way, at the time of the Slava celebration, the home and family become a miniature image of the Church, one filled with genuine life. Its material presence in given space is evi-dent and it is but a symbol of the spiritual reality that endows it with meaning. 'This is what constitutes the soul of the whole ritual of the Slava.

After the second World War, everything was done to abolish prohibit and root out the Slava. But when this did not succeed, the tendency was to lessen and to profane it as much as possible. It was urged that the cake, wheat and candle were not necessary, but that a more sumptuous dinner was called for. Likewise, no attention was paid to fasting days.

There are also other examples as when it is explained to the host what the Slava means, he tries to defend himself by saying: " I inherited it this way and I'm told it isn't good to change the custom used so far." This attitude was encountered also by the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of the year 325 in Nicaea, so that they decreed in the 15th Canon: " Any custom against the Apostolic rules that has taken root in certain places should be abolished..." St. Sava has left to the Serbian people the rules for celebrating the Slava. That is why it is our duty on the grounds of the above-cited Canon to uproot ugly, unchristian and hypocritical customs that have become habitual and deleterious to the Church. Have we asked ourselves are the God's Saints, of whom many were anchorites, satisfied with the way we celebrate their names? Will they be for us, such as we are, our protectors before God or not? The Slava is not just food and drink. It was as far back as in the day of St. Petar of Cetinje, the miracle-worker, who cursed everyone in Montenegro who celebrated the Slava for more than one day. The reason for this was to save food for the poor because even in those days many had turned the Slava into an orgy of food and drink.

Another even more mistaken practice has become habitual in some places. It may happen that the member of a family dies or is killed in the course of a year. The priest comes to the family to bless the water and then the host tells him: "This year I shall not celebrate my Slava because there has been a death in the family. Come next year." This is a paradox. When King Alexander was shot in Marseilles in 1934, many people called off their Slavas as a sign of mourning. For this reason, the Sacred Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church issued a proclamation which we must remember and act in accordance with it. The Slava is never to be interrupted. Worshippers were called upon at that time to double their prayers for the peace of the soul of the deceased with a special appeal for help to be extended to those at Slava time if they need it. Instead of rich feasts, the people were asked to prepare modest ones and the money thus saved to be given to the poor. This is the Christian concept of the Slava. In some Serbian areas, if someone in the family has died, the cake is not decorated but only a cross is made in the middle of the cake. This is a sign to the priest and all those present in the church that someone has died in the family that year.

 

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