Vidovdan is also the date Djindjich and his anti-Serb coalition decided to extradite Miloshevich to the Hague.
Many have used Vidovdan (St. Vitus' Day) to make fun of Serbs who celebrate their "defeat." Historically, the result of the Kosovo battle between the Turks and the Serbs was a draw.
Although the Turks defeated the Serbs in battle, a fateful but not a given outcome on the Blackbird's (i.e. Kosovo) Field, their victory was tempered by the killing of the Turkish Sultan the night before by a Serb warrior Milosh Obilich. Aftere the battle, the decapitated Turkish army reatreated to what is today FYROM Macedonia for 100 years.
Thus, in their defeat, the Serbs have delayed Ottoman conquest of Europe and won, knowingly or not, for Christian Europe badly needed and precious time to prepare for and check the Ottoman advance next time around.
The Military Krayina was formed by the Serbs escaping Bosnia in the 15th century, a rather desolate and scarcely populated region. As a border that served Austria as an effective barrier to further Ottoman advance, the Krayina Serbs were privileged and free, as compared to their Croatian neighbors, who were serfs -- the seeds of the Serbo-Croat conflict that was to come of age centuries later.
In 1914, Archduke Ferninand came to Bosnia to observe Austro-Hungarian war games on Serbia's border with Austrian-occupied Bosnia. The day was Vidovdan, and a clear provocation.
After resisting for a whole year the might of Austria-Hungary and Germany combined, Serbia -- that only two years earlier fought two major wars -- began to collapse. The Serb army retreated, thanks to various units that were literally sacrificed to slow down the enemy advance, to the Kosovo Polye and there made a decision to retreat through Albania to the coast, where they were promised by the British to be picked up and readided to come back to Serbia.
So, symbolically, once again, on that Field, and with their sovereign, the Serbs chose to die (about 1/3 died on the trek through Albania) rather than surrender.
The very first Yugoslavia (then known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) had a Constiution that was voted in on Vidovdan and is in fact known as the Vidovdanski ustav, St. Vitus's Day Constitution.
Miloshevich held his famnous and misquoted speech on the Gazimestan, the physical battlefield in Kosovo Polye, for a 600th anniversary, when over 1 million Serbs showed up.
Kosovo has been Serbia's curse and blessing. It is one of those eternal issues that never goes away.
Yes. I very much agree and think that there is much we don't (yet?) understand about the Serbs and Kosovo.
Maybe this is a big can of worms to open, but I'm interested in hearing your take on this; I've heard that Archduke Ferdinand was actually very pro-Serb and had much respect for the Serbian people which tended to mark him as a black sheep to the Hapsburghs and therefore expendable. I'm actually friends with Serbs that had him as Kumovi in their family and they consider him a sacrificial lamb for the Austria-Hungarian Empire.
I heard that Archduke Ferdinand may have been sent to Sarajevo on Vidovdan knowing that he would likely be executed and it would be a great excuse for Austria-Hungary to declare an ultimatum to Serbia that they could never possibly accept and therefore Austria-Hungary could feel justified in swallowing up a Serbia that had been very much exhausted by the Balkan Wars.
Do you think there can be any truth to this theory?