Monday, January 18, 2021

WE CELEBRATE SERBIAN CHRISTMAS


We celebrate Serbian Christmas in honor of my Mom. 

Her parents were both from Austria, Hungary: John Zakich came to America in 1904 on the Carpathia, where his name was changed to Zakit. Theresa Istene came to America with her father in 1906, leaving behind 3 sisters. John & Theresa were married January 8, 1911 in Bay City, Michigan and lived on a farm raising sugar beets. They later moved to Akron, Ohio where they raised eight children - my mother, Theresa Zakit Covey, being number five. 




Their family would celebrate Serbian Christmas every year on January 7th. As a child, I don’t ever remember celebrating it, but as Mom got older she started celebrating it again with our children and grandchildren. We would always get together for a meal at Mom and Dad’s house and she would pass on stories of her youth and there would always be a gift for the kids. 


After she passed away in 2008, we have continued to celebrate Serbian Christmas as a family.  


This year, because of a positive COVID test and a time of quarantine, we had to postpone our celebration until the 17th of January - but we still celebrated. I usually keep our Christmas tree and decorations up until after Serbian Christmas; however, this year because of the delay, all the Christmas decorations had been put away. Instead, we had streamers and my small Valentine tree for decorations. 


In the past, Mom told us that some years their Christmas stockings only had oranges, apples, nuts and an onion. In this year’s gift bag for the kids, I included an orange, apple, nuts, candy and a little cash, but no onion! When everyone opened their gift bags it was interesting that several cracked open and ate the walnuts and we (except for the grandkids) reminisced about the nut bowls filled with a variety of nuts along with a nut cracker around our homes at Christmas. Good memories.


It was a fun evening to be together, to celebrate our heritage and eat pizza.  


I don't know how much longer we'll keep this tradition going, but for now I think it  would make my Mom happy if she knew we were keeping her memory alive by celebrating Serbian Christmas. 


  















 












No comments:

Post a Comment