Happy Holidays from MK!

The holiday season here is long, especially if you are an American living here. The holiday season starts with American Christmas and ends three weeks later with Old New Years.

This year, for American Christmas, many of the PCVs here celebrated in Demir Kapija with wonderful hosts Aaron and Lori. All in all there were between 20 and 30 PCVs there for the weekend. Friday, we went up the hill to Popova Kula Winery and sampled some of their delicious wine and food. Saturday, was spent cooking and getting ready for the holiday meal. A whole pig was roasted at a local bakery and we had quite the spread of sides.

I didn't get a picture of our pig, but figured this guy looks about the same.

Later on we exchanged Secret Santa presents. I had a PCV who wanted cat toys, something hard to find in Macedonia, so I spent the weeks before sewing some out of assorted fabric I found in my house.

The best of the cat toys I made for my Secret Santa gift. Clearly sewing runs in the family.

After Secret Santa, Santa paid a visit and brought stockings for the group. The night finished with some Catch Phrase and everyone trying to find a place on a bed, couch, or the floor to squeeze in to sleep.

The stockings I started making Phil and I for Christmas- I didn't have enough time to finish, so that is a January/February project!

Merry Christmas Phillip is what it says.

Phil and I felt it necessary to celebrate Christmas on our own too, so after much secret planning and plotting, we (mostly Phil) put together quite a nice first Christmas if I do say so myself.

Our Christmas tree and presents- we both went a little crazy with gifts as our theme was small, many, and cheap.

Our Christmas feast included:

French carrot salad

Made from scratch rolls

A lemon, mint, garlic, parsley chicken

Roasted sweet potatoes

A delicious meal!

Phil took on the man's job of carving the chicken.

Next we moved onto New Year's Eve, perhaps the largest and most hyped holiday in this country. The Friday before, my students put on their annual New Year's show, which was a lot of fun to see. My favourite act by far was one of my 7th grade boys. He ended the show with a solo performance of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep". He was so nervous before and when he first started, but received a standing ovation at the end because he was so good.

The school choir

Some students singing and dancing

Some of my 5th graders reciting a poem

The 7th grade boy who rocked it!

On New Year's Eve, a group of us rented an apartment in Skopje for the night and celebrated with Chinese food, the free concert in the city square, and, unfortunately, firecrackers thrown into the crowd exploding under our feet. Firecrackers are very popular here and adults, kids, and babies start shooting them off the month before New Year's and continue a month after New Year's. It is often thought to be funny to throw them under someone's feet so they explode right under them. Not funny in my book. While at the concert, there were several guys who thought it was funny to throw them at us. The police just stood and watched, doing nothing for quite some time. One exploded and hit another Volunteer in the eye and we all had minor aches and pains from being hit by pieces of the burning explosive. However, I am pleased to report that there were no casualties or major injuries.

The Lozovo crew before we went out.

We had noise makers

The girls

The outdoor concert sponsored by T-Mobile

Happy New Year Aleksandar!

Fireworks at midnight- right before the firecrackers really made their appearance.

The next holiday is Macedonian Christmas. Last year, I went to Lozovo to celebrate with my host family there. This year, however, I wanted to see how it is celebrated by another family and what do ya know, I have a family here! While many things were similar, it was fun to see some of the differences. My family here is much more traditional and religious than my family in Lozovo was, so it was a great experience to see a more traditional Christmas Eve.

The Christmas season starts with Koleda, the day before Christmas Eve. Early in the morning on this day, children go on a hybrid of trick-or-treating combined with caroling and are given dried fruit and nuts. I thought maybe this year I would get to experience living with a family and living in town, but yet again, I missed it (kind of ok though as sometime the kids come as early as 4am). On Koleda evening, there are huge bonfires all over the country and people eat, drink, and dance the Oro. This year I went with my old neighbours up to one in another village. I had forgotten about this event, and wasn't given any advance notice, so I was not dressed appropriately for standing outside for hours on end, so I didn't stay too late, but it is definitely a cultural experience. My favourite moment was when the Babas decided they wanted to dance, so they requested a song from the musician and danced their own little Oro.

I didn't take any pictures this year, so here is one from Bonfire Night last year.

January 6th is Christmas Eve. The evening started with my host father taking some coal from the fire and placing incense on top of it to create smoke. The smoke was then brought through the house to warn off the spirits (I think). There was lots of crossing your chest and it was repeated over and over, "Christ is born". Then we sat down to eat and once we sat down, we were not allowed to leave the table. The Christmas Eve food is posno- meaning fasting- so no meat or dairy is served. The food served is pretty typical in every home you go to, although there were a few differences.

The Christmas Eve spread- this was all for just three people!

Three types of banitsa, fish, dried fruits....

Roasted pumpkin, the bread with money inside, walnuts, fruit, peppers, bean soup...and more!

Before eating anything, the food is blessed and offered up to God. I can't even count the number of times I crossed myself trying to fit in while God was being called to the table to eat and share.

Each person was given a plastic bag and part of the Christmas Eve meal was divided up between God, and each member of the family and this bag we would take and eat on Christmas Day. In the end, the bag contained roasted pumpkin, an apple, a banana, an orange, garlic, lots of dried fruit, nuts, candy, and bread. I could barely tie my bag shut at the end of the night there was so much in it!

My host mother had planted wheat grass back a month or so ago (I don't remember the exact date) and the grass then grows and holds the Christmas candles which represent Christ's birth. The leaves in the back are called Christmas leaves and every home, at least here, places them on the table along with their wheat grass on Christmas Eve. My host mother told me that she went to the church early in the morning to pick them up as that is where all the ladies of the houses go on Christmas Eve morning to get their leafy branch.

The wheat grass, candle, and Christmas leaves.

I didn't get a picture of this, but my family here also did the traditional straw under the table. The man of the house brings in a bundle of straw and recites the Christmas wish for the house. The straw then was spread under the table as a symbol of Christ in the manger. There was also a chain under our table and I didn't quite understand what that was for. Usually, my family here sits on the floor and eats the Christmas Eve meal atop the straw, however this year we didn't, as my host mother has had some problems with her legs.

Another tradition here is that each family bakes a loaf of bread with a coin inside. The man of the house breaks the bread into pieces giving first to God, then to himself, the mother, and so on down to the youngest child. I was the lucky one this year finding the money inside my piece. This means I will have good luck and money for the coming year. Last year, the bread also contained a piece of garlic for health and a chunk of wood for success in addition to the coin.

My lucky coin!

 After the meal, everything had to be left on the table just as it was when we finished eating, as to provide Jesus a place to sit and eat when he came to the house that night (it sounded like a religious version of leaving milk and cookies out for Santa). In the morning, everything would be put away.

The next, and last holiday, will be Old New Year's on the 14th of January. Vevchani is famous for their Old New Year's carnival and I just might pay it a visit again this year.