Kupala is an ancient Slavic holiday celebrating the summer solstice, or midsummer. Once part of a series of annual rituals, it marked and was believed to sustain agricultural cycles—essential to early human survival. Held as vitally important, these pagan traditions remained deeply rooted even after Christianization, technological change, and centuries of oppression tried to dislodge […]

What created Serbian national identity? This is a complex question and one that is personal for each Serbian. This resource will focus on presenting one important element of this identity – the Serbian national narrative. Who are the national heroes and pivotal events that they learned about in school? What are the major events that […]

The Talking Phrasebook Series presents useful phrases and words in side-by-side translation and with audio files specifically geared to help students work on listening skills and pronunciation. Each entry below, divided by category, features an English word or phrase in the left column and its Polish translation in the right. In the center column for […]

Serbian holidays show how civic and religious identity are often interchangeable in Serbia. Religion enters into almost every holiday listed below. Many of these holidays focus on family and tradition, but many observances focus on the sacrifices that Serbs have made in wars and battles ranging from the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 to WWI […]

Bulgaria’s earliest inhabitants were the Thracians. Originally nomadic herders, they settled in Bulgaria’s fertile, well-watered lands. There, they cultivated wheat, barley, and grapes, raised sheep, horses, and goats, and collected honey. Later, the arrival of the Slavs and Proto-Bulgarians in the Balkans further enriched the local culture and diet. Notable examples include fermented dairy and […]

Serbian cuisine is heavy on meat, dairy, and grains, a product of the nation’s geography and history. Serbia’s mountainous south lends itself to pastoralism and the earliest Serbs were mostly herdsmen. The Ottomans, who dominated Serbia from the 14th-19th centuries, were more interested in Serbia’s fertile river valleys, concentrated in the north. Serbs and their […]

Easter breads such as kulich, paska, choreg, and nazuki are delicious Easter traditions. Easter is by far the most important religious holiday for those practicing Eastern Christianity. In addition to church services and egg dying, the holiday is also marked across the cultures by ritual bread baking. Despite the wide geographic area covered by Eastern […]

The Talking Phrasebook Series presents useful phrases and words in side-by-side translation and with audio files specifically geared to help students work on listening skills and pronunciation. Below, you will find several useful phrases and words. To the left is the English and to the far right is the Serbian translation in both Latin and […]

Below, Tajik blogger Roxana Burkhanova describes, in Russian, the place of St. Petersburg in Russian culture. She discusses the city’s history as well as its literary heritage, its nightlife, and even how people from Petersburg speak their own, slightly different dialect of Russian. The text was originally written in 2015 and thus references times before […]

Polish food is hearty, flavorful, and deeply rooted in tradition. It is also experiencing a revival, re-inventing itself in major Polish cities as the country celebrates its heritage and embraces the latest trends and inspirations from world cuisines. Today, while dishes like pierogi, kielbasa, and bigos (hunter’s stew) are one you must try while visiting […]

Rites of welcoming spring and saying goodbye to winter are some of the oldest holidays preserved across Slavic cultures. In the Baltics, the celebrations were nearly lost after being suppressed by Catholic and imperial dominance. Today, Russia’s Maslenitsa is by the far the best-known, but multiple versions exist across the diverse Slavic landscape. In the […]

The dumplings and pastries of Europe’s northeastern flank have a story to tell. Their recipes, etymologies, and related traditions are intertwined in a complex historical knot. There are so many ancient connections that it is almost impossible to say which influenced the next. And yet, each dish is held up as a unique and integral […]