The Holidays in Macedonia

As residents of a new culture, we want to learn and experience as much as possible. Celebrating holidays are a huge part of any culture, but with this being the first holiday season that we were not with our family and friends, we wanted to uphold a few familiar traditions. This holiday season we are mixing what we know with things new to us.

Stockings hung off the tv with care

In December, we watched a ton of Christmas movies, listened to Christmas music constantly, made ornaments for our tiny Christmas tree, and hosted a little Christmas party with fellow PCVs.

I may have made my hot cocoa over a wood stove in Macedonia, but I remember my home state.

 
We celebrated Christmas on December 25, or what Macedonians called Thursday. The majority of Macedonians are Orthodox Christians, and adhere to the Orthodox calendar. Meaning, they celebrate Christmas on January 7. On December 25, we drank hot cocoa, exchanged gifts with one another, stuffed each other's socks with treats, spent the day relaxing, and Skyped with family and friends. We expected to be homesick, but it was actually really nice to just spend the day with each other, rather than worrying about shopping, traveling, and coordinating schedules.

A food processor and a warm robe for Christmas.

Christmas morning fritatta with red and green veggies.

Christmas pizza for Christmas dinner.

Skyping.

A few days after Christmas, the first snow of winter fell in Delcevo. Since then, the temperatures have been falling. We had been using a small electric heater to heat one room of the apartment in the evenings, but with below freezing temperatures, we made the switch to wood heat. We bought a cubic meter of wood for our wood stove. The apartment is much cozier now, and cooking and baking with the wood stove has been a fun adventure.

First snow!

The wood was brought to our driveway.

A man came with a chainsaw and cut it into smaller logs.

Jarred and our host guy spent an afternoon chopping and stacking it all under our stairs.

The cultural organization I work with partnered with the municipality of Delcevo to host a New Year's Party for the children of Delcevo and surrounding villages. In Macedonia, children receive gifts for the new year, not Christmas. So it is New Year, not Christmas, that Santa makes an appearance and trees are decorated. Jarred dressed as Дедо Мраз and handed out presents to the children. Дедо Мраз is the Macedonian name for Santa. It literally translates to Grandfather Frost. In Macedonia, Santa wishes you a happy new year instead of a merry Christmas.

We rang in the new year at a restaurant with a friend from Delcevo. Macedonians go all out for New Year. Everyone was dressed in their best and ready to celebrate. There was live music, a lot of dancing, and the food just kept coming. The band learned we were American, and dedicated a Bon Jovi song to us in English, but the rest of the music was Macedonian. It was fantastic. Everyone was dancing the Oro, a traditional form of dance, where everyone joins hands and does some fancy footwork in a circle. There are different types of Oros. We danced a few songs of the simplest version. We had a blast, but we unable to keep up with the Macedonians. They have some serious party endurance. Jarred and I were at the restaurant for over 6 hours. We were the first to leave at 3 a.m., but the party was still going strong.

Here is a fun little video of the New Year celebration.

-Andreya