THE „HAJDUČKO VEČE“ MANIFESTATION IN BOGATIĆ 2018
NUSANTARA spent its 26th excursion attending a wedding ceremony!
Another peculiarity of the excursion carried out on Saturday, August 4th 2018, was the time of departure – for the first time NUSANTARA headed to Mačva at noon!
The first place visited by members of the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship was the „Nana“ rural estate in Noćaj. On the estate dating back from the 1920s, labeled „tourist“ since September 2017, excursionists had a chance not only to have some rest, but also to buy some authentic home-made products from the rich offer of the „Nana“ estate. The guest house of Vera and Svetlana Savić is also a generator of the economic development of their local community – Mrs. and Ms. Savić purchase all produce used for specialities, afterwards served and sold to visitors of the estate, from local providers.
At the church in Bogatić, members of the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship heard priest Nikola Milošević tell an inspired story about this temple, currently under reconstruction, found out that this church, more than 160 years old, had been probably erected on the fundaments of an at least another 100 years older temple, and admired the iconostasis, the most precious thing within the church, painted by Steva Todorović and his wife Poleksija, daughter of Serbian writer Matija Ban. The frescoes are the work of Bulgarian icon painters, who worked with the Todorovićs at the same time.
The peculiarity of the church, considered the central temple of Mačva, is gravestones with engraved names of Zoran and Ružica Brnabić. The parents of Ana Brnabić, current Prime Minister of Serbia, had a reputation of „honourable and religious people“, as Father Nikola put it, and were remembered as great benefactors of the church in Bogatić!
Father Nikola had also a present prepared for members of the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship. Among valuables of the church, there is an icon of Madonna of Mačva, fitted in silver leaves, considered besides as miraculous. That Saturday, each visitor was given a replica with the image of Madonna of Mačva as a gift from priest Nikola Milošević.
Accompanied by Mr. Dragoljub Puzić, local guide and history lover, members of the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship visited another Orthodox temple that hot Saturday – the church of Saint Apostles Peter and Paul in Glogovac, erected in 1921. Glogovac is the place of birth of Janko Veselinović, and excursionists had a walk to the nearby cemetery, where the tomb of the famed Serbian story-writer and novelist of the 19th century is placed.
The main attraction of the Saturday’s itinerary was, however, an authentic Mačva wedding, organized at the „Sovljak“ ethno village. It was an opportunity for our travellers to recall traditional customs related to wedding celebrations. It was also an opportunity for the guests from Indonesia, taken by NUSANTARA to the excursion this Saturday, to get familiar with a tradition so different from wedding rituals in Indonesia. They saw, thus, the departure of carriages and wedding guests from the racetrack in Bogatić, an outlaw ambush in Sovljak, a wedding dance at the „Devina kafana“ in Crna Bara, and heard, among other things, so-called singing „from the bass“, typical of Mačva.
At the courtyard of the „Sovljak“ ethno village, where the traditional wedding celebration took place, under the oldest linden in Serbia, believed to be more than 220 years old, while a kolo was performed, members of the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship were served some home-made „Strudel“. The Tourist Organization of the Municipality of Bogatić kindly arranged the catering to host members of the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship and their guests from Indonesia within the „Hajdučko veče“ traditional manifestation.
The tourist visit to the Municipality of Bogatić ended by attending the competition for the chief of brigands for 2018 in Crna Bara. A part of members of the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship preferred to opt for a tour of Vasin šib. What is curious about Vasin šib is, among other things, a local graveyard – tombs dating from the end of the XVII century, precisely from the times of the migration of Serbs led by Patriarch Arsenije Čarnojević!
Persistent in its promotional work, this Saturday NUSANTARA also gave some of products made by the „Indomie Foods“ company to all of its hosts who welcomed the Association on its way across Mačva.
Biljana Đorđević