Srbija - nacionalna revija - broj 54 - engleski - niska rezolucija

fasting, when several hundred thousand souls
from Serbia and the world come together.
– It’s not that we are only known for the
Festival – Slavko Carević, called Tsar, objected.
– Our area has primarily become famous
for its hunting grounds and hunting association,
which has existed since 1902. Based on
some information, which we were not able to
document, it was commissioned as early as in
1884, and it turns out that it is one of the oldest
in Serbia. But as there is no written evidence,
with a heavy heart that we take that it
is eighteen years younger. We also have monasteries
Ascension, Presentation, Presentation,
Transfiguration, Stjenik, and the one dedicated
to the Holy Trinity. True, they belong to a
series of other monasteries in Ovčar-Kablar
Gorge, our Holy Mountain, but they are also
in Dragačevo! On top of all this, the locals are
softies. We are proud of them, of the tradition
of our ancestors, and who could even expect
more for such a little place?
SILENT GUNPOWDER
Slavko is the vice-president and a veterinary
technician of the Hunting Association.
In that order. A vice-president is the highest
rank among the local hunters.
– Since Milenko Rudinac left us on 20
August last year, we have had no president –
he explained. – There is hardly anyone who
could replace him, so this position will remain
vacant until who knows when.
The Hunting Association is composed of
six societies, namely Viča, Goračići, Guča,
Kaona, Kotraža and Lučani. Those from Guča
“line up” at the crack of dawn, in the very center
of the town, in Ivan’s tavern “Six Lanterns”,
which could also be called “Hunters’ Gathering”
because of this. And Ivan is another story:
he is probably the only innkeeper under
the sun who handshakes with all of his guests,
and he even kisses every other! You’d think
that they are close family. Well, as if they are.
Because, hunters are a strange breed anyway.
In fact, there is no shortage of miracles.
For example, even late Milenko or Tsar never
killed a roe deer or doe in this hunting
ground... although they have more than one
thousand five hundred animals! That is why
they were teased that they are only “taking
rifles for a walk”. So, what kind of hunters are
they?
– In the late 1990’s, when Milenko took the
helm of the Association, he found the hunting
ground so to speak empty – Tsar tells us.
– He slammed his fist on the table and said:
“We have been poaching enough, from now
on we will be the host!” And immediately he
took upon himself the mission to populate it.
Nothing harder. “New Youth” hunting grounds
began after 2000, and how much Milenko
was dedicated to this is evident in the fact
that, right next to the house of Aunt Rose, his
mother, he enclosed about seventeen acres for
the receipt of new animals, the so-called big
game, and right next to it also a smaller area
for fawns and other cubs. Aunt Rosa could
have chased us away any time she wanted it,
but she also devoted herself to this Sisyphean
work, although she was in advanced age. God
bless her soul. Well, she is the strongest manger
of the hunting ground! When starving
dogs once burst in this our “shelter” and attacked
the wild animals, Aunty Rosa jumped
between them and chased them away, and
that takes a male courage. Anyway, we were
doing that up until Milenko’s premature departure,
and that is why we did not shoot.
Goulash in
Hunting Lodge
SERBIA • N O 54 • 2016
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