WHAT DOES THE CELEBRATION OF CHRISTMAS IN THE DEFIANT LIKA LOOK LIKE?

There is a strong, unbreakable bond between the editorial team of the documentary series 'Putoakazi' and all the good hosts who have known how to welcome us over all these years, who have told us their life stories.

We have never visited a place just once. So, this year, on the eve of Christmas, we knocked on the door of Marko Jovanić from Donja Suvaja in Lika, all with the desire to cut the Yule log together. Yes, this is the same Marko who returned to his native land, to his ancestral home, because he could not bear to watch what his ancestors had cleared and cultivated for hundreds of years fall into decay and become overgrown with weeds. And so, he returned, renewed the hearth, and lives as one can live here today, but his heart is full because he knows he is on his own land. And here, in defiant Lika, here in Donja Suvaja, on the eve of Christmas, on Christmas Eve, the Yule log is cut. The customs may differ from village to village, from region to region, but the basics are known, says our host Marko Jovanić at the beginning of the story.

- On Christmas Eve, early in the morning, before sunrise, the Yule log is cut and brought home. Then the Yule log is leaned against the house, while the family inside wakes up. Lean food is prepared. Preferably just bread and water. Fish. And so on. I remember these customs from my grandmother and grandfather. As much as I remember, that's how much I try to respect these traditions today, says Marko. Childhood was beautiful, very beautiful, recalls our host, Marko Jovanić. He attended elementary school in his native Suvaja:

• - I remember the school, those were beautiful times. I remember my first teachers, of course. My teacher was my uncle, so I remember well," Marko says with a laugh.

Then came the war. At just under ten years of age, he was forced, like thousands of his neighbors, friends, relatives, to pack up the essentials and head for refuge.

Read the complete text at Srpska Cafe