Za Mnogu Godina

Literally translated this means "for many years," but on one special day called Vodnitza, you say this to not only every one you know, but to those people you pass on the street. It is to wish good luck and wellness for many to years to come on the whole city. This day is a huge celebration that begins with the drinking of hot rakia. Rakia is a VERY strong homemade alcohol that flows freely to all on this day. By freely, I mean, when we walked out of our door on that day to go to our landlords to celebrate we could smell the alcohol. The church just up the street from us was giving out free cups to anyone including children, and as we continued to walk we found that restaurants were giving it out for free, shops were giving it for free, coffee houses, and just regular people who had brought their hot keg into town were giving it out for free. This was of great interest to us. Many men and boys ran around in their speedos with a steaming hot cup of rakia and prepared to jump in the lake. "Jump in the lake? In January?" You may be asking. Yes, this is the day they celebrate John the Baptist, who baptized Jesus, and so tradition is that many men jump in the lake (this is not a required thing, and some people think it is crazy, but the whole city comes out to watch the men who do jump). But there is more to it than that; the supreme priest of the city comes to the lake, blesses a small wooden cross, sings some songs in the old language and tosses the cross in the water. The men and boys then jump in the lake to find the cross. Whoever gets it wins good luck for the whole year and also some money and a DVD player. Then the guy who captured the cross in the freezing cold lake walks around town with his buddies collecting money from the whole city and singing at every place he stops. He dropped by our house later that day with his friends. We were in language class, and I had no idea what to do. Maria, our language tutor, said I had to give him lunch, of which I had none, money and chocolates, of which I had none. So we chose not to open the door. It was better to pretend we weren't home than to disappoint him. So here are a few pictures of the festivities. Sorry they aren't very good. My camera batteries were almost dead.
This is the processional bringing in the priest.

This is one guy serving up his homemade rakia.

This is the best shot I could get of the guys in the water. About 100 jumped in, but you can't see them all.