Written by Petrit Latifi

It is often fantasized that “only Serbs celebrate Slavs”. Catholic Albanians celebrate Slavs, while as with the Montenegrins, their main Slav is Saint Nicholas. A good part of the Montenegrins is of Albanian origin, some were very much in business (in the linguistic sense) as early as 600 years ago, such as – Vasojevići, a good part of Bjelopavlić, Ceklinjani and Moračani Bogićevci long ago, and some were Orthodox 300 years ago (Kuci). The Christian name or glory was actually brought to Serbia mainly by immigrants from Montenegro. Quote from the book:

“Glory of the Baptism. – All Malisori and all northern ArBanija have a winter Nicholas Day, as a general national celebration. Nicholas Day is celebrated in Malaysia in seven days. For six days before St. Nicholas in every house before the icon of St. Nicholas thick wax and burns for seven days day and night. Every day, the household prays to God and kneels in front of the icon, singing their special prayers in the Albanian language.

On St. Nicholas’ Day itself, people go to church and spend the whole day playing, rejoicing, singing and shooting. Every more affluent householder slaughters the lock, so they feast with the locals. On this day, guests do not come, only guests come and go. Malisor cannot rejoice alone without others, that’s why the brothers and villagers go there on that day.

When passing from house to house, the Malisori sing and shoot. On Christmas Day, the priest comes to everyone’s house to “bless” the house, the flock, the beds and everything in and around the house, and he receives meat on his shoulders.

In recent times, this celebration has gradually been abandoned and some tribes have reduced the celebration to three days. St. Nicholas Day has been celebrated by the Mohammedans of Khota since ancient times, which means that St. Nikola was once the baptismal glory of all Malisors, perhaps also of all Arbanas of northern Arbania. Each Malisor tribe has a special crown glory, and yet on that day the priest does not come to their house, and on St. Nicholas must come and “bless” the house.

I think the main reasons for abandoning St. Nicholas as a Christian name and accepting other holidays that the Orthodox Church does not recognize are: 1) that St. Nicholas falls in the winter, when heavy snow and cold prevent the arrival of guests from the outside, from other tribes; 2) that St. Nicholas was celebrated not only by Malisori, but also by all tribes of northern Arbanija, and few of the guests could come; 3) the fact that St. Nicholas is the baptismal name of many Montenegrin tribes, so the Catholic priests could strive for this. that the Malisori leave the glory of St. Nicholas and transfer it to purely Catholic saints and holidays.