#македонија

[zumbuli]

ѓурѓовден е! 🌿🌸

gjurgjovden is a celebration of nature for various peoples of macedonia. for ethnic macedonians, although the day bears a christian name, the traditions practiced stem from our pagan past. this illust depicts the tradition of young girls swinging and singing songs about crushes under a fruit bearing tree. cleavers are stuck on their clothes, so they stick to each other like the grass sticks to them. customs vary from region to region, so here i specifically focused on maleshevija, eastern macedonia, as well as maleshevski traditional dress.

gjurgjovden is about love as much as it's about nature to me. i celebrated it with my late grandmother, with whom i shared a name. i painted this last year, during the 40 day period of mourning after she died. the krpa here is like the one she gave me, that her mother made.

[vintageeurope]

Galičnik, North Macedonia 1920s

[countriesgame]

Please reblog for a bigger sample size!

If you have any fun fact about North Macedonia, please tell us and I'll reblog it!

*Despite the name, North Macedonia is not the same place as ancient Macedonia, the place where Alexander the Great was from (that's part of Greece and the reason of their conflict).

[theadventurouslife4us]

The tallest Cross in the world, The Millennium Cross

[sljoka]

Скопје / Skopje

[foxboyroadkill]

happy independence day to any other macedonian out there !

Среќен ден на независноста. Нека живее Македонија! Никогаш северна, само Македонија. 🇲🇰☀️🦁

[go-sbrankos]

Моја Македонија, ВЕЧНА.

[mioritic]

Zaspala Cena // Duška Stojanova

Jugoton, 1967

[romanistan]

Group of Macedonian Romani

[asteriski]

zašto · kaliopi

[jalshristovski]

if it isnt personal, would you mind to share us your ethnics backgrounds history ? It is just that you have a really intersting mix and wondered how it worked out 😅

Anon I am so glad you asked because I love talking about my culture/family history and you’ve just opened floodgates

Firstly I’d like to specify that this is ONLY my dad’s side. My mother’s side immigrated to the US a very long long time ago during the colonial period, left their culture behind, and it was abandoned long before my time. I know where they’re all from, I know specific Scottish clans (and I love learning about them!!!) but I do not claim those cultures because I did not grow up with them, and my mother weaponises them a long and I don’t want to do the same thing.

To add on, my mother’s family lives in another state (my father is from Michigan, that’s where I was raised, my mother’s family is all several states away) so I was primarily raised by, watched by, and grew up around my dad’s family. That’s whose traditions I mostly practiced, whose food I ate, whose holidays I celebrated, whose stories I heard, and whose languages I heard

NOW TO THE ACTUAL HISTORY

My dedo (grandfather) and his family came from Aegean Macedonia, which is currently occupied by Greece. His father came from the village of Buf (renamed to Akrítas) in Lerinsko Pole, and his mother came from the city of Lerin (renamed to Flórinas). My pradedo was mixed Turkish as well from the time of Ottoman occupation, and while Macedonian culture and tradition was first and foremost, they still brought down certain Turkish traditions, language (mostly certain words), cuisine, and certain habits. Though from that side they were definitely dominated by the Macedonian culture.

My family fled Macedonia during the genocide, my pradedo first leaving in 1936 for the United States to get established in Detroit before my prababa and teta fled two years later to join him. Previously one of my uncles (pradedo’s brother) had left in 1912.

Unfortunately there’s not much left in the way of documentation, either it was left behind to be destroyed by Greek occupiers or it straight up doesn’t exist (my relatives were severely impoverished and were unable to afford things like photographs, many books, or anything else). I have my prababa’s passport and that’s all.

To my babcia’s side, they all came from Poland. Different parts of Poland and they belonged to different ethnic groups within Poland, but they were mostly all from Poland (with exceptions of some others marrying into the family, my babcia’s grandfather was half Austrian but I’m not sure which of his parents was Austrian).

My babcia’s father (I’ve always just heard him referred to as dziadzia) was mixed Ashkenazi Jewish and Kashubian, mostly. My Ashkenazi family came from Pałuki region in Kujawsko-Pomorskie/Wielkopolskie in places like Żnin (city and region), Szelejewo, Gąsawa, Wenecja, and Kłecko. But also they later left to Łomża in Podlasie, which is where he directly immigrated from. Kashubian family came from Pomorskie, specifically Rogawica.

My babcia’s mother (who I’ve always heard referred to as babki) was just Polish to my knowledge, and they came from Warsaw, Kraków, and possibly some other places but surprisingly they aren’t as well documented. Though they did bring a lot of culture from especially Kraków as a lot of my relatives are or were krakowiak dancers, but also I still have relatives living there (though I’ve not actually met them, one of my cousins frequently visits them).

I wasn’t raided religiously Jewish (secular Jew) but raised with a lot of the Polish-Jewish culture, mindsets/ideologies, and generally I think I’m lucky as much of that culture survived as it did.

Generally if people ask I’ll keep it primarily to Macedonian and Polish since those were the dominant cultures in my life, but I’m so proud of all of them. My family went through much hardship being who they were, where they were, and especially with much cultural damage done by occupiers (like Germans/Prussians, Russians, Greeks), or done by their immigration to the US, I love to keep the culture alive as much as I see it dwindling year by year in my relatives

I think the biggest difficulty has been the language, because I was never actually taught the languages so it’s a struggle, especially with me now living in Poland, but I do my best. Even growing up in the US my relatives were somewhat poor, or lower-middle class, so nobody was ever able to afford leaving the country to visit Poland or Macedonia, so moving here has been such a long time coming and so fulfilling for me.

Anyway thank you for the question, I know that was long but I simply love talking about my culture haha

[zumbuli]

.🍇🍃

[vintageeurope]

Skopje, North Macedonia 1920

[chote]

скопље #инстаграмџии #скопје #македонија #палата #macedonia #skopje #travelphotography #travel #visitmacedonia #visitskopje (at Скопје, Македонија) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpxtBhzMEMw/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[theadventurouslife4us]

Manastir Presveta Bogorodica, Matka

[sljoka]

Скопје / Skopje