Vidovdan

Vidovdan! Eternal Memory to Tsar Lazar and the Martyrs of Kosovo Field, who died on this day 1389, in battle with the invading Muslim hordes!

Видовдан! Вечни Меморија за цара Лазара и мученика Косову пољу, који је умро на данашњи дан 1389, у борби са инвазије муслиманских хорди!

Today, on the Julian or 'Old' Calendar, is the Feast of St Vitus, the 

Serbian National Day. It is called Vidovdan (Видовдан=St Vitus' Day) and is the anniversary of the greatest defeat the Serb people ever endured. On this day in 1389 Tsar Lazar Hrebeljanović and the flower of Serbian chivalry fell to the jihadist hordes. Since they died in defence of the Faith, Lazar is commemorated as a Martyr Saint in the Serbian Orthodox Church, with his Feast being celebrated today.

After the defeat his wife, the Tsaritsa Milica (born a Nemanjić), gave a massive beeswax candle to the Church, with instructions that it was not to be lit until her husband's death was avenged.

In 1912, during the First Balkan War, the Serbs tried to lead the Turks onto Kosovo Field to do battle. Failing to succeed in that, they met them at Kumanovo, approximately 100 km southeast of the site of the battle in 1389.

After soundly defeating the jihadis, King Petar led the Serb Army to Ravanica Monastery where Lazar's relics are enshrined. There a moleben of thanksgiving (a Te Deum) was sung, and the King lit the candle that the Taritsa had donated 523 years before.

From Wikipedia:

In Serbian epic tradition, Lazar is said to have been visited the night before battle by a grey hawk or falcon from Jerusalem who offered a choice between an earthly kingdom—implying victory at the Battle of Kosovo—or a heavenly kingdom—which would come as the result of a peaceful capitulation or bloody defeat.

"...the Prophet Elias then appeared as a grey falcon to Lazar, bearing a letter from the Holy Theotokos that told him the choice was between holding an earthly kingdom and entering the kingdom of heaven..."

According to the epics, Lazar opted for the eternal, heavenly kingdom and consequently perished on the battlefield. "We die with Christ, to live forever", he told his soldiers. That Kosovo's declaration and testament is regarded as a covenant which the Serb people made with God and sealed with the blood of martyrs. Since then all Serbs faithful to that Testament regard themselves as the people of God, Christ's New Testament nation, heavenly Serbia, part of God's New Israel. This is why Serbs sometimes refer to themselves as the people of Heaven.

The 'Curse of Kosovo':

"Whoever is a Serb and of Serb birth,
And of Serb blood and heritage,
And comes not to the Battle of Kosovo,
May he never have the progeny his heart desires,
Neither son nor daughter!
May nothing grow that his hand sows,
Neither dark wine nor white wheat!
And let him be cursed from all ages to all ages!"

– Lazar curses those who do not take up arms against the Turks at the Battle of Kosovo, from a poem first published in 1815.