Friday, June 28, 2013

Happy St. Vitus Day

Locals have been keeping their eye on today's session of the European Council, hoping that it will mark the start of accession talks for Serbia to join the European Union. There seemed to be an undue amount of emphasis on the need for things to start today, rather than any other date, so I looked up June 28th.

Turns out that June 28 is St. Vitus day, or Vidovdan, the holiday that commemorates the sacrifice of Serbian martyrs defending their faith in the epic battle of Kosovo on this day in 1389.

But wait, there's more:
   I was aware of how Milosevic made his political career out of that speech on the 600th anniversary of the battle, but I did not know any of the other dates. The WW I dates are particularly interesting.

Update
It looks like they've received the go-ahead to begin negotiations in January. I think that will make everyone happy. But as I said, I've heard politicians say that "just a green light" is not enough. I don't know what that means exactly.

Update (2)
In a somewhat incoherent article, Prime Minister Dacic says that he is not too satisfied. He wishes the date was sooner, "but anyway, it's a historic day."

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