I know this event is old, but better late than never.
Some Croatians, say that Columbus is Croatian. Well, at least no one
claims that Croatians invented baseball, so I guess I'll not pass
judgment on such a claim. I think the Croatians also claim Marco Polo
as their own. That may have more merit since part of Croatia was under
Venetian rule at one time.
Anyway I went to the performance of the Zagreb Folk Dance Ensemble,
Saturday (October 8, 2005) at the Campbell Heritage Theater. I
invited my Croatian American friends (two brothers Anton and John) and
their families. I'm glad they came since I don't understand Croatian.
But it turns out that even they had a hard time understanding what was
sung. Part of the problem is could be regional dialect; another is
that it is an older form of Croatian.
But at least I got some explanation of what was going on. That and a
written program helped a bit. The program started out with no
lights. Someone spoke or sang. (This was great for me since I had to
go to the restroom and missed the first few minutes), then the dances
started with a wedding dance. Part of the dance involved sword fights
between the male dancers. The ending scene also was a wedding dance.
But no sword fights. There was somebody walking around holding two
wine bottles. Anton commented on the martial scene in the first dance
and the wine bottles in the last. I don't know, perhaps everyone was
too plastered to engage in a sword fight by the end. Anton also
commented that it was interesting to see the influences of other
countries on Croatian dance. He recognized some influence from
Bulgaria. I can sort of believe him. Some of the singing sounded like
something from the TV show Xena, which borrowed from all over including
Bulgaria. Some of the costumes reminded me of what modern Greeks wear
for their festivities; long white shirts and caps. And some of the
music reminds me of something from Zorba, the Greek. The Croatians
have a musical instrument (sort of like a lute) called the tamburiza
(spelling?). In one scene there is a friendly musical competition
between the Croatian and Hungarian musicians. Sort of like dueling
banjos. The Croat has the tamburiza and the Hungarian has the violin.
It was a bit amusing to see Anton cheering the tamburiza player.
Hungary dominated Croatia till the end of the First World War. At one
time there was a statue of a Croatian soldier with his sword pointing
toward Hungary. This was in honor of the Croatians who aided the
government in putting down the 1848 Hungarian rebellion. The statue
was taken down with the advent of Communism (can't show hostility
towards a comrade). With the official fall of Communism the statue was
revived, but this time with the sword pointing in another direction.
Another dance which I remember is where there is no music, but a lot
of foot stomping. I think the routine ends with the dancers forming a
line and winding like a snake. A Zagreb Folk Dance Ensemble Christmas
CD was being sold at the event. The song "Bog se Rodi" was on that
CD. I believe it was also sung at the event. The song literally
translates to "God is born." But basically it means "Christ is
born." How interesting that such a title so strongly conveys the
deity of Christ ! I guess Serbian and Croatian are similar languages,
though both groups have shown hostility to each other. I visited a
Serbian Orthodox church during their Christmas service (January 7,
1991 ?) and heard the words "Christos se Rodi." On another occasion
John explained that name of the heretical group "bogomil." literally
meant "God lover." So I sort of guessed the meaning of the song
title. But Anton provided the confirmation. The song "Bog se Rodi"
also reminded me of a conversation I had with a Lutheran pastor. He
pointed out that a Good Friday hymn said originally in German, "our
God has died." In the English translation it read "our Lord has
died." The translation sort of lessens the impact of the original.
Are we Christians in modern times are too afraid to affirm the deity
of Christ and it's implications? Christians of the past have been
able to say God is born and Our God has died. Why not go back to the
earlier expressions? No, I'm not denying the humanity of Christ. I'm
not a monophysite. But in this day and age when so many have denied
Christ's deity and made him nothing more than a moral teacher, why not
strongly confess Christ's deity? I did not mean to bore you with
a "sermon." I just thought I'd make a passing comment.
After the event I got a chance to talk to a Croatian friend of John and
Anton's, named Ivo. He compared the food here with the food in
Croatia. I think his comment was that people don't really know what a
tomato tastes like, until they go to Croatia. It's weird. I heard a
Ukrainian make a similar comment. I think he said the food here has no
taste. I think he had hoped to grow a vegetable garden and sell his
produce or use his produce in the food he sold. In my own personal
experience, I noticed that the food in Dunsmuir had more flavor than
the food in the Bay Area.
Ivo also stated that a number of Italian restaurants are run by
Croatians. I can believe that. I read a newspaper article which
stated that Original Joe's in San Francisco was started by Croatians.
There is a related Original Joe's in San Jose. I did eat at the
San Jose Original Joe's. All this time and I never even knew that
this was a Croatian run restaurant. A similar phenomenon has occurred
with Asian institutions. A number of Sushi places are run by
Koreans. I heard that most or all of the "Japanese" restaurants in
Fremont are owned by Chinese.
I think the concert could have been better served if there was some
introductory commentary in English. Even my friends who spoke
Croatian could not follow everything. But all in all, judging by the
applause, I would say the concert was a success
# posted by GuyTak @ 11:43 PM
