In the elementary school of socialist Yugoslavia, we encountered words whose meaning no one interpreted, and they could not be avoided in the planned school reading. So, for example, we heard that the road sign resembling the Cyrillic letter "X" is called "Andreja's Cross", and that it serves to increase the caution of road users approaching the railway line. Since there was one Andrea in my class, I thought: what a privilege a little girl has who is named after a traffic sign! It will take a long time for me to understand how each personality carries its own cross, with whom, with a peaceful soul, a personal name can be placed. But I needed a theological school, in order to find out why this form of the cross bears the name of my schoolmate? That is, how would I connect her name, and the names of so many Anders, Andrijes and Andrijans, with the Holy Apostle Andrije, who ended his missionary life, crucified on a cross of just that shape.
In the countries of the West, whose standards we strive for, primary school students acquire this knowledge in their schools, in religious education.
It was similar with "morning" from the title of Laza Lazarević's short story. Although I come from a traditional Christian family, the very concept of "morning" was unknown to me at that childhood age, and it looked more like going hunting and fishing than the Sunday service that precedes the Holy Liturgy. The teachers in the elementary school lightly ran over that detail that "said itself" only at the very end of the plot, and which, in the interpretation of the fable, was presented to us as less important, almost episodic.
In the countries of the West, whose standards we strive for and whose good customs we praise, schoolchildren not only know what matins is, but they can also attend it, by free choice. Somewhere as part of the teaching of religious education, and somewhere as part of the house rules of various "Catholic", "Anglican" and similar schools, which have the right to the public, and which can, if (the parents) want, be attended by the children of all citizens of a Western European country, regardless of their race, language or nation. And many, numerous, do that there.
And so on... As Tito's pioneer, I had a whole series of connections in my head, so Šantić's "Pre-holiday Eve", despite the clear mention of lanterns, icons and Christmas, was intertwined with the meeting of AVNOJ, and other events that had nothing to do with icons , but which looked like holidays to us because we didn't go to school because of them - unlike Christmas back then. The most beautiful verses in my native language, such as "the way of the God-man" and "there, to Golgotha", from the same Šantić, to Njegoš's glory that overshadowed "Bethlehem", "Mount Athos" and "holy Kiev", are not, and still are today they do not have an adequate explanation in the school curriculum. Those programs envisage reading and reciting them, but not their ultimate explanation. Not to mention so many biblical motifs that are present in most of the world's great works of literature, music and visual arts. We are not here, and even to this day we do not have, planned and programmatic clarification and approach to children's heads, those topics that inspired all those works. Works of which their textbooks are full.
Of course, in Western countries, whose standards we strive for, it's all different.
But let's go back to the Holy Apostle Andrew (I am closer to this folk name than the older and more original, Greek and Old Slavic variants of his name). The mentioned shape of the cross, which bears his name, could be visually recognized in many national flags of the world. However, as far as I know, only the flag of Scotland was designed to point to Saint Andrew, the patron saint of this country. As such, it served as the basis for the "drawing" of the flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (which, in addition to the Scottish flag, also included the English and Northern Irish flags). And that it is not just a stylized reminder of a famous saint in a traditionally Christian country, is also told by the scene from the British Parliament, where in one of the halls there are mosaics with the figures of four Christian saints, patrons of the four constituent states of the United Kingdom: St. George, patron of England; Saint Patrick, patron of (Northern) Ireland; Saint David the Welsh and Saint Andrew - the patron saint of Scotland. And all this, of course, in the secular building where all the politicians of this country work and live, including atheists, agnostics, Hindus, and Muslims. Finally, all this in a country whose current prime minister is ethnic Indian Rishi Sunak.
So, according to the rules of the country whose standards we need to reach, secular, multinational and civil countries, Christian saints and apostles everywhere, in schools and in parliament - and that doesn't bother anyone. Here, the one-dimensional and one-party consciousness made fun of Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić's graphic statements that his ministers are like "apostles". Although, in both cases, we are talking about two states that have been marked by the Christian tradition for almost the same historical period, and that have kept the symbols of that tradition on their national emblems. Only, in the West, children are taught from an early age what their tradition means, and here we still need to explain to children what, for example, represents the lion on our coat of arms and which Christian saint it indicates. But I guess that is the difference between the tradition of the Island and the tradition of the "bare island".
The aforementioned Scotland, compared to us here in Montenegro, has a greater miracle than the Loch Ness monster. Namely, there is a referendum on independence that took place exactly ten years ago, and where the ratio of "for" and "against" leaving the UK was similar to the results of the referendum in Montenegro. 55,3% against independence, and 44,7% for independence. You will ask, so what kind of miracle is that? Well, despite such a narrow difference on such a very important issue, no one there "takes their eyes off", nor does it occur to anyone to declare people who were against the independence of Scotland as enemies of the state or traitors. The citizens of Scotland live in much greater mutual love and unity after that referendum than we do here, even though, seen from here, the reasons for independence were incomparably more there than here, given the difference between the Scots and the rest of the kingdom (linguistic, cultural, spiritual, ethnic ) and numerous bloody wars of extermination between the Scots and the English. Therefore, when comparing Scotland and Montenegro: much greater cultural and ethnic differences compared to the outside - there than here; similar political differences internally – there and here; similar emphasis on pride, tradition, statehood, and high hills and morals - both there and here; and much less tension in this northern British country than here in the Mediterranean. Why?
Until recently, it wasn't like that. Despite all the great historical upheavals and divisions, the language of division has never been pushed to such an extent in Montenegro. So what happened yesterday? All actors of the social and political life of Montenegro, in the last half century, are more or less the same, both in terms of their names and the teachings and programs they represent and their rhetoric. Nothing, in terms of speech and behavior, has changed so much as to justify the story about the cause of the "greatest divisions so far" among Montenegrin citizens. Neither did the Church, during all that time, change its name and structure, nor did it change its teaching; nor did the once referendum grouping and argumentation of two options cause animosity among groups of citizens, as someone wants to portray it today. The only clear and unequivocal change, first in the form of an announcement and foreboding, and since four years ago in a concrete act, is - the change of key people in power. And therefore a change in the holding of numerous social monopolies. Our country does not know about this phenomenon in the millennium of its historical duration, without it being accompanied by war accidents and sufferings. For the first time, it happened peacefully and democratically. However, Evil does not stand still. The evil specter of division and hatred seems to want to pay the price for the act, which in the countries whose standards we aspire to, is considered the most normal, the most natural, in the current (largely media fabricated) hatred and apprehension of the new "Chetniks" and "partisans". The act of democratic transfer of power and the act of civilized, legal regulation of the life of churches and religious communities within a state.
Of course, in our country, all these are the consequences of one-party single-mindedness, and of the fully developed "the state is me" model - from which the only way out is by adopting traditional European norms and standards of social life, which I wrote about at the beginning of this text. and which were partly known here and which we lived when we didn't behave as if we were "from yesterday".
Bonus video:
