So it wasn't for nothing that I moved to the Balkans 😅

I've been flying for a while now, but this is the first time I've been on a flight where they offer a business class upgrade through an auction (I googled it – turns out it's a pretty common thing).

Here's how it works: Air Serbia sends you a link where you decide how much you're willing to pay for the upgrade. Then you cross your fingers and hope there are fewer people willing to pay more than you than there are available seats.

The minimum upgrade fee for one leg isn't that different from the cost of economy round-trip: from 65k dinars (~$600) to 125k (~$1160). The return flight bids are 1.5 times higher.

Against all my expectations, it turns out that a direct flight from Belgrade to New York takes the same 10 hours it used to from Moscow. Well, alright then. Guess I'll be suffering in economy 😅

Every year, Serbians celebrate Slava—the feast day of their family's patron saint. On this day, everyone who works gets an official day off, as written in the labor code. It doesn't matter if you're a local or just someone who moved there, or what you actually practice religion-wise: you get the day off, so you can should use it.

The thing is, there's no single day when the whole country celebrates, because there are many patron saints. Each family has their own: men inherit theirs, and women usually celebrate their father's saint first, then their husband's (though sometimes after marriage they celebrate both twice a year).

This tradition isn't unique to Serbia—you'll find it in neighboring Balkan countries too. Though Serbians often see Slava as a kind of marker of their national identity. But honestly, it's more complicated than that.

PS. For 2023, I counted about 10 public holidays total, plus you get 20 vacation days (though I know people whose employers give them 25). Guess I should read through the Serbian labor code again—maybe there are some other perks hiding in there :()

Serbian Christmas is a very family-oriented holiday. So on the 7th, almost nothing is open except for a few cafes. And places start closing from the evening of the 6th. This year the 8th fell on a Sunday, so some establishments decided not to open on that day either.

Usually everything is celebrated at home, and fish dishes are often prepared because it's customary to fast during these days, but I'm not a big expert on festive menus.

As for celebrations in the streets, besides burning the Yule log and amateur fireworks, there wasn't really much ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

Although the country isn't very large, the nuances of traditions often vary depending on the region, and some are practiced only in certain parts of the country.

For example, in the east until the early 20th century, people tried to appease Herman (a mythical creature that influences rain, floods, and other weather important for agriculture).

The head of the household would take brandy, wine, some bread, and a candle from home, walk around his lands, and shout: "Herman, wherever you are, come now so we don't meet in summer". He'd drink the alcohol and return home, where he'd tell everyone that he met with the spirit, they drank together, worked everything out, and parted ways peacefully.

There are plenty of such examples to fill an entire book (:

I managed to get back to Belgrade just in time for the big Christmas celebrations to see the festivities firsthand.

Serbia has a whole bunch of traditions around these days, many of which have survived from pre-Christian pagan rituals. Today, a lot of these rituals only remain in villages and small towns, while in larger cities they gradually fade away or transform. But I'll try to quickly walk you through the main highlights.

The main visible action happens on the evening of January 6th (the actual holiday is the 7th). But the preparations start about a month before.

These aren't photos from different countries—it's all Bosnia and Herzegovina. It's just that Serbs prefer to hang the Serbian flag, Croats hang the Croatian one, and only Bosniaks hang the yellow-blue version, and even then not always. Even on official buildings!

I was really surprised by such blatant separatism, but it turns out the whole thing is much more complicated: people were literally forced to accept the current flag.

To understand how this happened, let's rewind to 1995. The war had just ended. The world was worried things might flare up again, so the EU and USA decided to put a... temporary "administrator" in place. They created the position of High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and they appoint the person from outside themselves (still do!). And they gave this position two superpowers:
1) fire ANY official in the country suspected of breaking the law
2) make a decision independently if the authorities can't agree

And this isn't just an empty threat. Over two hundred officials have been removed under this system. They didn't even spare presidents. Though sometimes they missed the mark: a Croatian president was removed in 2005, but later all charges were dropped—though by then it was too late to reinstate him. But he did win the election again in 2015. And a Serbian president apparently got fired purely over political disagreements. Cases like these really do look like blatant abuse of power.

In 1998, the country was choosing its symbols, but the government couldn't agree for a long time. That's when they used the superpower: the High Representative imposed their own design for the coat of arms and flag. So now people hang whichever one they prefer, rather than what they were ordered to.

This concentration of power in one person's hands, combined with vague criteria for when to apply the rules, naturally drew criticism. The US eventually stopped participating in this arrangement, and Europe decided in 2008 to finally abolish the position and even set a final date. But this move triggered a wave of disappointment among Bosnia and Herzegovina's citizens and even more criticism. The local government was reasonably seen as corrupt and unable to function effectively without external oversight. So they left everything as is indefinitely.