RTCG used to broadcast the most interesting New Year's Eve situations from all cities across Montenegro. Among the bizarrely interesting situations was when they showed politicians waiting for Nova in some restaurants from Žabljak to Budva. After midnight, before they hug their loved ones, people form a line and wait to be kissed Milo, Philip or Svetozarom. There were no camera phones then, no selfies and Instagram, but they recounted who they shook hands with and who they made love to.
In the age that many call golden, the people watched Tita i Jovanka in New Year's party. Those who had a TV watched. Anyone who wasn't present at Tito's celebration was known to be a slacker. The New Year was a symbol of closeness, symbolic messages were sent, only indirectly and behind the scenes. The New Year was also a play, with characters present and written off.
And while for Nova, politicians mostly hang out in hotels, ordinary people are on the street or at home (in polls, people like to say that it's the best, although they too would hang out in a hotel on the coast, if they had the money). Finally, the square in Podgorica came to life, and it's great that local artists are in charge of entertainment. Before the break with the organization of the reception, in the square in Podgorica they sang Colonia, Petar Graso, and whoever had a hood on his jacket could also get a firecracker in it, so that he could return home with his jacket in full bloom.
Things seem to have changed. But one thing is constant. There is hardly a better impression than the "morning after New Year". When the vast majority of people are asleep, sober and repentant, sparing the city is magical. More than ten years ago I was waiting for Nova at the Bar in a Dublin cafe. Early on the first of January, at the railway station in Bar, I approached a railway official and asked him: "Is this one going to Podgorica", meaning of course the train. The man answered me in an instant: "No, he will go to Italy".
I got the right answer. Because, on the first of January, the question is only asked if you have to. It's time to leave people alone. That's why I hate listening to messages from singers or politicians, athletes, actors or anyone who wants to jump out of the standard New Year's greeting. Nova was created to be enjoyed, and on those days it is time to avoid politics, because we are oversaturated with other days.
But people were burdened with what she meant to say Severine. So what did someone else answer and who prompted whom? Instead of spending the morning after the New Year with coffee, with friends or alone, people got caught up in arguments, they also miss Fajtanja for the New Year.
That's why that first day is golden, until someone breaks it with an intrusion. There is a charm in that calmness on the first of January, when there is the least talk of politics, when we at least pretend not to get annoyed and to love each other (all of us).
At the same time, Nova arrives in Kotor, Podgorica, Budva, Berane, Kolašin, to name a few Becic in the election campaign all cities indefinitely. The point is that the quieter and smaller the town, the better and more beautiful the first of January.
Because, when midnight and New Year pass, it is important that someone congratulates you from the bottom of their heart, that you make someone happy sincerely, and not burden you with information about who said what, to whom and why. It's time for everyone to act out their mood at least for one day.
There is enough saffron, but too few nice words.
Bonus video:
