COMMEMORATIVE CEREMONIES DEDICATED TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN THE SOUTH OF SERBIA UNTIL 1941

Abstract

The key event in period of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, or the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, that the people of South Serbia had in vivid memory was neither the breaking-out of the Thessaloniki front, nor the liberation, nor the creation of a common state with Croats and Slovenes, but the crimes of the Bulgarian occupying forces since 1915, and especially in 1917. In the first years after the liberation and throughout the interwar period those crimes that were very widespread and very cruel, were massively commemorated especially during anniversaries. Recollection, memorial service-parastos, erected monuments, sanctification of crypts, celebrations of the Day of Unification - public holiday, celebration of the anniversary of the breakthrough of the Thessaloniki Front or the Toplica Uprising, memorial books and other forms of marking and memory of the victims of the Bulgarian terror and World War I became an annual ritual of commemorating and remembering. The first major commemorative ceremony dedicated to the First World War in Leskovac was recorded in 1922. That year, on St. Vitus Day (Vidovdan) were two ceremonies dedicated to the events of the war. The first one was related to October 26, 1915, and the defense of Leskovac from Bulgaria. On that day, one Serbian captain died defending the city on the Hisar Hill. Above the common grave at Hisar Hill people from Leskovac built a monument to him and his soldiers. The second ceremony was dedicated to erecting the monument of innocent victims shot in the Arapova dolina in 1917. This monument was placed near the church at the St. Elias cemetery, where after the war the remains were buried in a common grave. The cornerstone of the memorial building with a chestnut and a chapel in Surdulica was ceremoniously erected also on Vidovdan 1922. This monument was consecrated after two years in the presence of King Aleksandar and Queen Marija. In the following period monuments and other memorials dedicated to the victims of the wars of 1912- 1918, were erected almost in all major places of southern Serbia. Various forms of commemorative activities were recorded in Crna Trava, Vlasotince, Lebane, Medvedja, Babicka, and large ceremonies were held in Prokuplje, Kuršumlija and Grgur. The mentioned commemorative activities during the interwar period have created a special awareness of the suffering of the Serbian population in the First World War, especially awareness of the crimes committed by the Bulgarian occupying force.