On this day, the birthday of Josip Broz Tito was celebrated in the former Yugoslavia, which became a national holiday called Youth Day back in 1957. The celebration of Youth Day itself was led by a baton, which was called “štafeta.” Every year it passed through all the republics and provinces of the former Yugoslavia in the weeks leading up to May 25th. The baton was carried in the hands of young people who proudly ran from destination to destination with it in hand, and thus it was carried through many villages and cities of Yugoslavia and everywhere it was ceremoniously followed, welcomed, and seen off. On May 25th itself, until 1979, at the celebration in Belgrade, the baton was presented as a congratulation to Tito. In 1980 Tito died.
I had the honour of being a participant in one such Youth Day celebration, called “slet”, in Belgrade, although only in 1984, when Tito was no longer among the living. From each Yugoslav republic and two provinces, a city was chosen that represented its republic at the “slet” that year. In 1984, my city Bjelovar represented Croatia. The “slet” itself is a dance choreography. Now I would say there were maybe two thousand participants, because the number of 300 of us who represented Croatia is spinning in my head. In Belgrade, we were all housed in a barrack where only the soldiers who were responsible for maintaining the barracks and taking care of us remained. During the day we practiced the dance choreography for the “slet”, and in the evening we all had outdoor disco nights together. One evening, a cinema was organized in the wonderful Sava Centre in Belgrade, and that's when I saw the movie "Flash dance" for the first time. Each republic had its own colour of costumes in which it performed at the final performance of the “slet”, and our colour was orange. That was great for me because my mom always told me that orange was my colour and that it looked great on me.
At the landing, the famous Yugoslav singer Željko Bebek sang the song “Friends”, to which we also danced. Here I am attaching a video link to Bebek's performance that night and the lyrics of the song, which are very significant. Namely, in the words of the song it is said "We don't need a war to happen to us to be heroes...don't we, my friends." And all of us young people from all over Yugoslavia sang and danced to that song. Just 6 years after that wonderful Yugoslav spectacle, Yugoslavia fell apart in a bloody war.
Friends
We love our country with full heart,
Don’t we, my friends?
Let our parents not be insulted,
We want the burden on our backs.
Don’t we, my friends?
Don’t we, my friends.
The wheel of the revolution, we are moving the cogs.
Meet your sons for once,
Get to know them today, right away,
Find places for them too.
We don't need a war to happen to us
To show that we are patriots.
We don't need a war to happen to us
To be able to be heroes.
Don’t we, my friends?
Don’t we, my friends?
Kristina
Thursday, May 25th, 2023
Sjećanje na Dan Mladosti 1984.
Na današnji dan se u bivšoj Jugoslaviji slavio rođendan Josipa Broza Tita koji je još davne 1957. godine postao nacionalni praznik zvan Dan Mladosti. Samoj proslavi Dana Mladosti prethodila je palica koja je nazvana štafeta, a svake je godine prošla kroz sve republike i pokrajine bivše Jugoslavije tjednima prije 25. svibnja. Štafeta se nosila u rukama mladih ljudi koji su sa njom u ruci ponosno trčali od destinacije do destinacije i tako se prenosila kroz mnoga sela i gradove Jugoslavije i svugdje je svečano praćena, dočekana i ispraćena. Na sam 25. svibanj sve do 1979. na proslavi u Beogradu štafeta je darivana kao čestitka Titu. Tito je preminuo 1980.
Imala sam čast biti sudionik jedne takove proslave Dana Mladosti, nazvane slet, u Beogradu, iako tek 1984. godine kad Tito više nije bio među živima. Iz svake Jugoslavenske republike i dvije pokrajine izabran je grad koji je te godine predstavljao svoju republiku na sletu. Te 1984. godine je tada moj grad Bjelovar predstavljao Hrvatsku. Sam slet je plesna koreografija. Sad bi rekla bilo nas je možda nekih dvije tisuće učensnika jer mi se u glavi vrti brojka od nas 300 koji smo predstavljali Hrvatsku. U Beogradu smo svi bili smješteni u kasarni u kojoj su ostali samo vojnici koji su bili odgovorni za održavanje kasarne i brigu o nama. Tokom dana smo vježbali uigravanje plesne koreografije za slet, a navečer smo svi zajedno imali disco večeri na otvorenom. Jednu večer organizirano je kino u divnom Sava centru u Beogradu i tada sam prvi put pogledala film “Flesh dance.” Svaka je republika imala svoju boju kostima u kojima je nastupala na završnoj predstavi sleta, a naša je boja bila narančasta. To je bilo super za mene jer mi je mama uvijek govorila da je narančasta moja boja i da mi super stoji.
Na sletu je poznati jugoslavenski pjevač Željko Bebek pjevao pjsmu Drugarska uz koju smo također plesali. Ovdje prilažem video link na izvedbu Bebeka i tekst pjesme koji je vrlo znakovit. Naime u riječima pjesme se kaže “Ne treba rat da nam se desi da bi umjeli biti heroji…zar ne drugovi moji.” I svi mi mladi iz čitave Jugoslavije pjevali smo i plesali uz tu pjesmu. Samo 6 godina nakon tog divnog jugoslavenskog spektakla Jugoslavija se raspala u krvavom ratu.
Drugarska
Domovina sa srcem se ljubi,
Zar ne drugovi moji?
Nek roditelje naše ne vređa
Hoćemo teret na svoja leđa.
Zar ne drugovi moji?
Zar ne drugovi moji.
Točak revolucije, krećemo klinove
Upoznajte već jednom svoje sinove,
Upoznajte ih danas, smjesta,
Nađite i za njih mjesta.
Ne treba rat da nam se desi
Da pokažemo da smo rodoljubi.
Ne treba rat da nam se desi
Da bi umjeli biti heroji.
Zar ne drugovi moji?
Zar ne drugovi moji?
Kristina
Četvrtak, 25.svibnja 2023.
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