Since the days of early Christianity, Serbs began to celebrate the Day of the Holy Martyr Vitus, Vidovdan. According to the Gregorian calendar, this occurs on June 28th. It was on this day that many turning and tragic events happened in the history of Serbia.
The first of them happened on June 28, 1389, when the troops of Prince Lazar fought with the army of the Turkish Sultan Murad. On the Kosovo field, the Serbs were defeated, as a result of which they all perished, but the Turkish army could not advance further into Europe for a long time. The Serbs believe that that battle cost them independence for as much as five hundred years. Serbia first received the status of a vassal of Turkey, and then, in 1459, became part of the Ottoman Empire.
After the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip killed the Austrian heir to the throne - Archduke Franz Ferdinand - and his wife Sophie, the Second World War began. It happened on June 28, 1914. And the archduke arrived in Sarajevo for a military exercise dedicated to the Kosovo battle.
On this day in 1921, the Kingdom of Serbs, Slovenes and Croats adopted a constitution, the unofficial name of which is the Vidovdan charter. This constitution greatly limited the monarchical power.
On June 28, 1991, from the clashes between the Yugoslav People's Army and the self-defense units of Slovenia, which declared independence in Yugoslavia, a civil war began, which claimed many thousands of lives and erased this country from the world map.
Finally, it was on June 28 that the former President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic was sent to the mercy of the Hague Tribunal, where during the trial he died in a prison cell from myocardial infarction.
There is such a day in Serbian history. Nevertheless, it is celebrated today as a tribute to the nationwide memory of the heroes of the Battle of Kosovo. They remember how the Serbian hero Milos Obilic went to certain death. Pretending to be a defector, he killed the Turkish Sultan Murad with a dagger.
According to legend, the Turks cut off the head of Prince Lazar, took it with them and to this day they do not give it to the Serbs, who keep the relics of the prince in the monastery of Ravanitsa. Because when the head of Lazarus unites with his relics, Serbia will regain its former strength. They say that on the eve of Vidovdan, the rivers near the battlefield turn red in the dead of night. On this day, cuckoos do not cuckoo in memory of the fallen heroes, and no one is having fun in the country.