A celebration of culture

By Dorothy Paunovich
“Serb Fest” is held at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Merrillville, Ind., on the first weekend in August.

This year, an exhibit (funded in part by the Indiana Humanities Council) called “Immigrants, Serbs of Steel” told the story of hard-working immigrants who labored in the dangerous steel mills from the early 1900s to the present day. The Serbian immigrants helped build Northwest Indiana’s steel mills, industries, and towns. The exhibit can still be viewed every Sunday after church.

On Sun., Aug. 2, co-authors Stephen McShane and Gary Wilks (Steel Giants) shared  their research about the early immigrants’ contributions to northwest Indiana’s steel industries. Nick Tarailo (Bronko’s Restaurant) spoke of the stories his grandfather  shared about the early days in Gary. You can learn more by watching a video about the project, here.

Included in the exhibit was a burgundy embroidered vest that is more than 200 years old, and was buried in the ground during two wars (WWI and the Turkish war). It belonged to the great-grandmother of one of our parishioners who is 70-years-old. She said that they had to hide their identities and things of value during those times.

Every Serbian family has a fascinating story related to the events that brought them to this great country. Serb Fest is a celebration of those stories, and a homecoming for the heart. Everyone is welcome at Serb Fest–it is attended by so many non-Serbs because they love the food and music.

It has become somewhat of a homecoming for college students, relatives, and for those who are even just slightly Serbian. They can count on things that are familiar: their favorite foods and music. There’s nothing like watching several hundred young people in their teens and early 20s singing and dancing to music that came from a foreign land several generations ago. They still want to dance and sing because it really means something special to them. They all bring friends from school and their neighbors. I remember my non-Serb friends in high school being envious because we had spent the weekends at church dances, basketball tournaments, or traveled to perform with our folklore dance groups or choir. We had so much fun and had so much to talk about. If you went to a Serbian church, it didn’t mean you were in church all of the time, but AT church, where you were surrounded by all this great culture.

What are your “ethnic” memories growing up in Indiana? How do you celebrate that culture today?