The slava ("celebration"; Serbian Cyrillic: слава) is a Serbian Orthodox Christian tradition of the ritual glorification of one's family's patron saint. The family celebrates the Slava annually on the saint's feast day.
The Slava is the family's annual ceremony and veneration of their patron saint, a social event in which the family is together at the house of the patriarch. The slava also brings friends to the house, regardless if they have the same slava. The family saint is inherited from the patriarch (head of the household) – from father to son, while women do inherit the patron saint of their husbands upon leaving their families. As several patron saints are venerated twice a year, the main day is the slava, while the secondary one is called preslava. Some families may celebrate another patron saint in the case when the wife is the only left of her kin, in respect to her family.
The tradition is an important ethnic marker of Serb identity.[1] Serbs usually regard the Slava as their most significant and most solemn feast day.[2] The tradition of the Slava is also very well preserved among the Serb and Macedonian diaspora on all 5 continents.[3] Apart from Serbs, the custom is also practised by the Orthodox Macedonian families.
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