A Christmas Miracle

We returned to Serbia last Wednesday after an action-packed ten days stateside. The flight back was uneventful until we arrived in Belgrade and my bag wasn't there. This was upsetting because (a) it had some of my favorite stuff in it and (b) the bag itself is a fancy backpack and would have been pricey to replace. I gave about a 50-50 chance of seeing my things again and was delightfully surprised when our Orthodox Christmas dinner was interrupted by the bag delivery man. I was especially surprised that it would get delivered on Christmas because everything is closed.

Serbians celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7th (so we just had Christmas 2006) and it's a much more religious affair without the commercial maddness that exists in the States (it's not considered a time for gift giving). Our hosts invited us to celebrate the holiday with them so we got to see the different traditions first hand.

Before we started the meal, we broke a special bread that has a coin baked into it. Everyone put a hand on the loaf and we turned it three times, then everyone pulled out a piece. Whoever gets the coin will have good fortune in the coming year. There are other things baked in, cloves and spices, each with a different meaning. Dan got health and I got fertility (uh-oh).

This posting on a Serbian news site details more of the Christmas traditions. We had a wonderful time and ate loads of food. It's marathon eating - you have to pace yourself or you won't make it to the end. Before the meal we snacked on nuts and dried figs. After we broke the bread, we started with salads, then soup, then sarma (stuffed cabbage), then huge trays of pork and lamb, finishing up with dessert. Now that I've experienced my second big Serbian meal, I've come to the conclusion that while hosts are required to put out dizzying amounts of food, guests aren't actually required to eat it all. This was a relief for me, because I know I can't eat my equal share of the food that is served (even though it's all delicious).

Now that we've been back a few days and are settled in (finally did my laundry this afternoon) we're looking ahead to January, which will definitely include another trip to Budapest for a conference and will hopefully include some snowboarding and, at long last, tango.