Serbians welcome in "Orthodox" New Year

Serbians welcome in "Orthodox" New Year

BELGRADE -- Tens of thousands of people across the country on Tuesday celebrated the beginning of the new year according to the Julian calendar.

This is the calendar adhered to by the Serbian Orthodox Church, so the January 13 festivities are sometimes referred to as the Orthodox, or Serbian New Year.

There were no organized open-air events in Belgrade, but restaurants and clubs had special programs for the evening.

At the same time, several thousand people gathered in front of St. Sava's Temple to take part in a special prayer and enjoy a fireworks display.

Concerts were held in squares in many towns across the country, notably in Nis in the south, where Goran Bregovic and his Weddings and Funerals Orchestra performed in front of several thousand people, and in Novi Sad in the north, where as many as 60,000 gathered to see Svetlana Ceca Raznatovic.

Organizers said that a large number of tourists visited the town for the Orthodox New Year, including those who traveled from all parts of Serbia, and from Montenegro, Bosnia, and Croatia.

Serbs in Gracanica near Pristina also held a celebration in the enclave's central square, as did about 10,000 residents of Cacak in central Serbia, where cabinet minister Velimir Ilic's party organized the event.

The local administration of Kragujevac this year opted to save money and not fund any events for either new year celebrations, but the city enjoyed a fireworks display.

Thousands of revelers also gathered in the town of Jagodina, and in the winter mountain resort of Zlatibor.

Last night's celebrations marked the end of this holiday season in Serbia, that began on December 25 when the country's...