"Serbian Easter in San Francisco, April 11, 2004" by karenincalifornia

San Francisco has a large community of Serbs and Montenegrins who have immigrated to the city from the early 1900's to present day. For Serbs in San Francisco, the center of cultural, religious and social activity is the St. John Serbian Orthodox Church in the Western Addition area of San Francisco.

One of the most significant religious holidays for this community is Orthodox Easter. The Serbian Orthodox Church follows the Julian Calendar, which means that the date calculation for Easter differs from the calculation used by the Catholic Church, Protestant churches and other churches that adopted the Gregorian Calendar. This year in 2004 the dates coincided, and Orthodox Easter was on the same day as Western Easter.

Easter Sunday brings several hundred people out for the Easter liturgy and many stay for the cocktails, wine and lamb dinner following the service.

The entire liturgy is conducted in Serbian and has not been altered for over 1500 years. In the Serbian Orthodox church, no instrumental music is permitted; instead all music is vocal and is provided by the very talented church choir. After the liturgy, the message of the Patriarch in Belgrade is read, first in English, then in Serbian. Communion follows, then all parishioners kiss the cross, receive the Easter greeting from Father Marko - "Hristos Voskrese", respond with "Vaistinu Voskrese", receive an Easter egg, children receive candy and all go outside to chat with family and friends.

After the service, many stay for the Easter dinner, which is served downstairs in the church hall. Of course, lamb is served -- the traditional Easter dinner! St. John Serbian Orthodox Church used to roast an entire lamb or two on the spit in the parking lot. Church membership at St. John has grown significantly in the 1990s as people from former Yugoslavia fled during the war and moved to San Francisco. Now there are so many parishioners at Easter that trying to cut up the lamb quickly to feed so many people became next to impossible. Instead, the church now grills rack of lamb, which is much easier to serve to over 200 impatient and hungry Serbs.

I was too busy visiting with friends and family inside the church hall today so I did not get a picture of the grill until almost all of the lamb had been taken off. If I had been outside just a little earlier, I would have been able to take a picture of this entire grill loaded with rack of lamb.

In front of the church, both the United States and Serbia & Montenegro flags are flown as a symbol of unity. All of us attending church today have family, friends and kumovi living in Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Republika Srpska, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia. There is never a time that we forget the challenges faced by our friends, brothers and family on the other side of the Atlantic.

Today, on April 11, 2004, we were reminded of the terrible situation in Kosovo and Metohija. Recently, at least 20 people in Kosovo have been killed, almost 900 civilians have been wounded, 22 of them seriously, 561 Serb homes have been burned down, 218 homes have been damaged and 35 Orthodox churches and monasteries have been destroyed or heavily damaged by terrorists. We were asked to write to our Congressmen in the U.S. to express our concerns and urge our Representatives and Senators to vote for the recently introduced resolutions in the House (HRES 587) and the Senate (SRES 325). Both these proposed resolutions condemn ethnic violence in Kosovo and support democracy, freedom and rights of all individuals.

Easter Sunday at St. John Serbian Orthodox Church is wonderful opportunity for my family to spend time with all of our Serbian relatives, friends and kumovi who are scattered throughout the Bay Area. This is a picture of my daughter, Melanie, with her adorable twin cousins, Maya and Nina.

Seated here from left to right, enjoying Easter dinner in the church hall is my immediate family -- my daughter Melanie, my son Danny, their Baba ("Grandmother" in Serbian, aka The World's Best Mother-In-Law), my husband Greg and me.

Hristos Voskrese!
Vaistinu Voskrese!