Kolo (dance)
In Southeastern Europe, the South Slavic people traditionally dance the circle dance, known as kolo, named after the circle formed by the dancers. It is instead known as Oro in Bulgaria and North Macedonia, respectively; the circle dance is performed amongst groups of people holding each other's hands or having their hands around each other's waists. There is no movement above the waist; the basic steps are easy to learn, but experienced dancers dance kolo with great virtuosity due to different ornamental elements they add, such as syncopated steps. Each region has at least one unique kolo. Many variations of kolo are performed at weddings, social and religious ceremonies. Kolo may be performed in two parallel lines. Both men and women dance together, however some dances require only men to dance and some dances are only for women; the music is fast-paced and contains tricky steps. Traditional dance costumes vary from region to region, but Bosnian and Serbian dance costumes are the most similar to each other.
Men wear a cap, loose blouse tucked into trousers that balloon around the thighs and tightening from the knee down to the ankle. Women wear long white embroidered dresses with heavy velvet aprons tied at the waist. Both the dress and apron are embroidered with bright flowers to enhance the females outfit. Both men and women wear embroidered velvet vests; the shoes are called opanci, made from cured skin molded to fit the dancers foot. The dance was used by Antonín Dvořák in his Slavonic Dances - the Serbian Kolo is the seventh dance from opus 72. Serbian dances Croatian dances Greek Dances Hora Circle dance Khorovod, an Eastern European circle dance Assyrian folk dance Kurdish dance Armenian dance Turkish dance Faroese dance Dabke Music and video of the basic Kolo Bosnian Flok Dance: The Kolo
Socialist Republic of Croatia
The Socialist Republic of Croatia was a constituent republic and federated state of Yugoslavia. By its constitution, modern-day Croatia is its direct continuation. Along with five other Yugoslav republics, it was formed during World War II and became a socialist republic after the war, it had four full official names during its 48-year existence. By territory and population, it was the second largest republic in Yugoslavia, after the Socialist Republic of Serbia. In 1990, the government dismantled the single-party system of government – installed by the Communist Party – and adopted a multi-party democracy; the newly elected government of Franjo Tuđman moved the republic towards independence, formally seceding from Yugoslavia in 1991 and thereby contributing to its dissolution. Croatia became part of the Yugoslav federation in 1943 after the Second Session of the AVNOJ and through the resolutions of the ZAVNOH, Croatia's wartime deliberative body, it was founded as the Federal State of Croatia on May 9, 1944, at the 3rd session of the ZAVNOH.
Yugoslavia was called the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, it was not a constitutionally socialist state, or a republic, in anticipation of the conclusion of the war, when these issues were settled. On November 29, 1945, the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia became the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, a socialist People's Republic. Accordingly, the Federal State of Croatia became the People's Republic of Croatia. On April 7, 1963, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was renamed into the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia abandoned Stalinism after the Tito-Stalin split in 1948. In 1963 the People's Republic of Croatia accordingly became the Socialist Republic of Croatia. On December 22, 1990, a new Constitution was adopted, under which the Socialist Republic of Croatia was renamed as the Republic of Croatia, it was under this constitution that Croatia became independent on June 25, 1991. In the first years of the war, Yugoslav Partisans in Croatia did not have support of Croats.
The majority of partisans on the territory of Croatia were Croatian Serbs. However, in 1943 Croats started to join partisans in larger numbers. In 1943, number of Croat partisans in Croatia increased, so in 1944 they composed 61% of partisans on the territory of Croatia, while Serbs made 28%. On 13 June 1943 in Otočac, Croatian partisans founded the ZAVNOH, a legislative body of the future Croatian republic within the Yugoslavia, its first president was Vladimir Nazor. Croatian partisans had their autonomy along with the Macedonian partisans. However, on 1 March 1945 they were put under the command of Supreme Command of the Yugoslav Army, thus losing their autonomy. Partisans of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina did not have such autonomy; because of partisan victories and increased territory held by partisans, AVNOJ decided to hold the second session in Jajce at the end of November 1943. At that session, the Yugoslav communist leadership decided to reestablish Yugoslavia as federal state. On November 29, 1945 the Yugoslav Constituent Assembly held a session where it was decided that Yugoslavia would be composed of six republics: Slovenia, Croatia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia.
Not long after, the Communist Party started to prosecute those who opposed the communist one-party system. On January 30, 1946, the Constituent Assembly made the Constitution of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. Croatia was the last of the republics to make its constitution, which were the same; the Constitution of the People's Republic of Croatia was adopted by the Constituent Parliament of the PR Croatia on January 18, 1947. In their constitutions, all republics have been deprieved of gaining independence. Republics had only formal autonomy; the Communist Party's officials were, at the same time, state officials, while the Party's Central Committee was de iure, the highest organ of the state. The governments of the republics were only part of the mechanism in approval of Politburo's decisions. In post-war Yugoslavia, communists had a struggle for power with the opposition that supported King Peter. Milan Grol was leader of the opposition; the Croatian Peasant Party, part of the opposition, had divided into three branches: one supporting the Ustaše, the other supporting the communists and the third supporting Vladko Maček.
However, communists had the majority in parliament and control over the army, leaving the opposition without any real power. Šubašić had his own supporters within the HSS and he tried to unite the party once again, believing that, once united, it would be a major political factor in the country. The Croatian Republican Peasant Party, a split party of the HSS, wanted to enter the People's Front, a suprapolitical organization controlled by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Šubašić knew that this would put the HSS under control of the communists and ended the negotiations about the unification. In the election campaign, the opposition parties wanted to unite with the Serbian Radi
Lijepa naša domovino
"Lijepa naša domovino" is the national anthem of Croatia. It is referred to as just "Lijepa naša" in Croatia, a phrase used as a metonym for the country; the original lyrics were written by Antun Mihanović and first published under the title "Horvatska domovina" in 1835. In 1846, the music amateur Josip Runjanin composed the music for "Horvatska domovina". Runjanin's army bandmaster Josip Wendl adapted his music for a military brass orchestra; the original form of the melody is unknown. The song was scored and harmonized for a male choir by a teacher of singing and organist of the Zagreb Cathedral Vatroslav Lichtenegger in 1861, after that it started to be performed as the Croatian people's ethnic anthem; the title "Lijepa naša" has been applied since that time. The original text has 14 verses. Since a few minor adjustments have been made to the lyrics; the song was not adopted by the Croatian Parliament as the national anthem. In 1907, the Association of Croatian Singing Clubs requested the parliament to do so but received no response though the song was used as the state anthem in unofficial capacity at ceremonies, including the 29 October 1918 session of the parliament when Croatia formally dissolved its ties with Austria-Hungary.
Between 1918 and 1941, segments of the Croatian national anthem were part of the national anthem of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and it was unofficial hymn of Croats. During the World War II, in the Independent State of Croatia it was used as state anthem, albeit with some modifications to the lyrics. Croatian partisans were using it, for example during ZAVNOH sessions; the song became the state anthem of Croatia through amendments of the Constitution of Croatia adopted by the parliament of the SR Croatia on 29 February 1972. It was confirmed by constitutions of 1974 and 1990, when its lyrics were modified, by the Coat of Arms, the Flag and the National Anthem of the Republic of Croatia Act. On most occasions only the first two stanzas are performed; the poem first published in No. 10, edited by Ljudevit Gaj, in 1835 consisted of fourteen verses but today, only verses one, two and fourteen are part of the national anthem. Mratinić, Berislav. "Sto dvadeset godina od prvog izvođenja „Lijepe naše domovine" kao himne".
Arhivski vjesnik. Zagreb: Croatian State Archives. 54: 277–281. Retrieved 28 October 2017. Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has an information website on the anthem with sound files of it. Croatia: Lijepa naša domovino - Audio of the national anthem of Croatia, with information and lyrics ""Lijepa naša domovino"- put od stotinu godina do statusa hrvatske himne". Sabor.hr
Danube
The Danube is Europe's second longest river, after the Volga. It is located in Eastern Europe; the Danube was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire, today flows through 10 countries, more than any other river in the world. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for 2,850 km, passing through or bordering Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and Ukraine before draining into the Black Sea, its drainage basin extends into nine more countries. The Danube river basin is home to fish species such as pike, huchen, Wels catfish and tench, it is home to a large diversity of carp and sturgeon, as well as salmon and trout. A few species of euryhaline fish, such as European seabass and eel, inhabit the Danube Delta and the lower portion of the river. Since ancient times, the Danube has become a traditional trade route in Europe, nowadays 2,415 km of its total length being navigable; the river is an important source of energy and drinking water. Danube is an Old European river name derived from a Proto-Indo-European *dānu.
Other river names from the same root include the Dunaj, Dzvina/Daugava, Donets, Dniestr, Dysna and Tuoni. In Rigvedic Sanskrit, dānu means "fluid, drop", in Avestan, the same word means "river". In the Rigveda, Dānu once appears as the mother of Vrtra, "a dragon blocking the course of the rivers"; the Finnish word for Danube is Tonava, most derived from the word for the river in Swedish and German, Donau. Its Sámi name Deatnu means "Great River", it is possible that dānu in Scythian as in Avestan was a generic word for "river": Dnieper and Dniestr, from Danapris and Danastius, are presumed to continue Scythian *dānu apara "far river" and *dānu nazdya- "near river", respectively. The river was known to the ancient Greeks as the Istros a borrowing from a Daco-Thracian name meaning "strong, swift", from a root also encountered in the ancient name of the Dniester and akin to Iranic turos “swift” and Sanskrit iṣiras "swift", from the PIE *isro-, *sreu “to flow”. In the Middle Ages, the Greek Tiras was borrowed into Italian as Tyrlo and into Turkic languages as Tyrla, the latter further borrowed into Romanian as a regionalism.
The Thraco-Phrygian name was Matoas, "the bringer of luck". In Latin, the Danube was variously known as Ister; the Latin name is masculine, except Slovenian. The German Donau is feminine, as it has been re-interpreted as containing the suffix -ouwe "wetland". Romanian differs from other surrounding languages in designating the river with a feminine term, Dunărea; this form was not inherited from Latin. To explain the loss of the Latin name, scholars who suppose that Romanian developed near the large river propose that the Romanian name descends from a hypotetical Thracian *Donaris that shares the same PIE root with the Iranic don-/dan-, with the suffix -aris encountered in the ancient name of the Ialomița River, in the unidentified Miliare river mentioned by Jordanes in his Getica. Gábor Vékony says that this hypothesis is not plausible, because the Greeks borrowed the Istros form from the native Thracians, he proposes. The modern languages spoken in the Danube basin all use names related to Dānuvius: German: Donau.
Dunav. Dunai. Classified as an international waterway, it originates in the town of Donaueschingen, in the Black Forest of Germany, at the confluence of the rivers Brigach and Breg; the Danube flows southeast for about 2,730 km, passing through four capital cities before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine. Once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire, the river passes through or touches the borders of 10 countries: Romania, Serbia, Germany, Slovakia, Croatia and Moldova, its drainage basin extends into nine more. In addition to the bordering countries, the drainage basin includes parts of nine more countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Italy, North Macedonia and Albania, its total drainage basin is 801,463 km2. The highest point of the drainage basin is the summit of Piz Bernina at the Italy–Switzerland border, at 4,049 metres; the land drained by the Danube extends into many other countries. Many Danubian tributaries are important rivers in their own right, navigable by barges and other shallow-draught boats.
From its source to its outlet into the Black Sea, its main tribu
National anthem
A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people. The majority of national anthems are hymns in style; the countries of Latin America, Central Asia, Europe tend towards more ornate and operatic pieces, while those in the Middle East, Oceania and the Caribbean use a more simplistic fanfare. Some countries that are devolved into multiple constituent states have their own official musical compositions for them. A national anthem is most in the national or most common language of the country, whether de facto or official, there are notable exceptions. Most states with more than one national language may offer several versions of their anthem, for instance: The "Swiss Psalm", the national anthem of Switzerland, has different lyrics for each of the country's four official languages; the national anthem of Canada, "O Canada", has official lyrics in both English and French which are not translations of each other, is sung with a mixture of stanzas, representing the country's bilingual nature.
The song itself was written in French. "The Soldier's Song", the national anthem of Ireland, was written and adopted in English, but an Irish translation, although never formally adopted, is nowadays always sung instead. The current South African national anthem is unique in that five of the country's eleven official languages are used in the same anthem, it was created by combining two different songs together and modifying the lyrics and adding new ones. One of the two official national anthems of New Zealand, "God Defend New Zealand", is now sung with the first verse in Māori and the second in English; the tune is the same but the words are not a direct translation of each other. "God Bless Fiji" has lyrics in Fijian which are not translations of each other. Although official, the Fijian version is sung, it is the English version, performed at international sporting events. Although Singapore has four official languages, with English being the current lingua franca, the national anthem, "Majulah Singapura" is in Malay and by law can only be sung with its original Malay lyrics, despite the fact that Malay is a minority language in Singapore.
This is because Part XIII of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore declares, “the national language shall be the Malay language and shall be in the Roman script ” There are several countries that do not have official lyrics to their national anthems. One of these is the national anthem of Spain. Although it had lyrics those lyrics were discontinued after governmental changes in the early 1980s after Francisco Franco's dictactorship. In 2007 a national competition to write words was held. Other national anthems with no words include "Inno Nazionale della Repubblica", the national anthem of San Marino, that of Bosnia and Herzegovina and that of Kosovo, entitled "Europe"; the national anthem of India, "Jana Gana Mana", the official lyrics are in the Devnagari. The lyrics were adopted from a Bengali poem written by Rabindranath Tagore. Despite the most common language in Wales being English, the Welsh regional anthem "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" is sung in the Welsh language; the national anthem of Finland, was first written in Swedish and only translated to Finnish.
It is nowadays sung in both languages as there is a Swedish speaking minority of about 6% in the country. National anthems rose to prominence in Europe during the 19th century, but some originated much earlier; the presumed oldest national anthem belongs to the Netherlands and is called the "Wilhelmus". It was written between 1568 and 1572 during the Dutch Revolt and its current melody variant was composed shortly before 1626, it was a popular orangist march during the 17th century but it did not become the official Dutch national anthem until 1932. The Japanese national anthem, "Kimigayo", has the oldest lyrics, which were taken from a Heian period poem, yet it was not set to music until 1880; the Philippine national anthem "Lupang Hinirang" was composed in 1898 as wordless incidental music for the ceremony declaring independence from the Spanish Empire. The Spanish poem "Filipinas" was written the following year to serve as the anthem's lyrics. "God Save the Queen", the national anthem of the United Kingdom and the royal anthem reserved for use in the presence of the Monarch in some Commonwealth realms, was first performed in 1619 under the title "God Save the King".
It is not the national anthem of the UK, though it became such through custom and usage. Spain's national anthem, the "Marcha Real", written in 1761, was among the first to be adopted as such, in 1770. Denmark adopted the older of its two national anthems, "Kong Christian stod ved højen mast", in 1780. Serbia became the first Eastern European nation to have a national anthem – "Rise up, Serbia!" – in 1804."Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu", the national anthem of Kenya, is one of the first national anthems to be specifical
Croats
Croats or Croatians are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia. Croats live in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but are recognized minorities in such countries as Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. Due to political and economic reasons, many Croats migrated to North and South America as well as Australia and New Zealand, establishing a diaspora in the aftermath of World War II, with grassroots assistance from earlier communities and the Roman Catholic Church. Croats are Roman Catholics; the Croatian language is official in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in the European Union, is a recognised minority language within Croatian autochthonous communities and minorities in Montenegro, Italy and Serbia. Evidence is rather scarce for the period between the 7th and 8th centuries, CE. Archaeological evidence shows population continuity in coastal Istria. In contrast, much of the Dinaric hinterland appears to have been depopulated, as all hilltop settlements, from Noricum to Dardania, were abandoned in the early 7th century.
Although the dating of the earliest Slavic settlements is still disputed, there is a hiatus of a century. The origin and nature of the Slavic migrations remain controversial, all available evidence points to the nearby Danubian and Carpathian regions; the ethnonym "Croat" is first attested in the charter of Duke Trpimir. Much uncertainty revolves around the exact circumstances of their appearance given the scarcity of literary sources during the 7th and 8th century "Dark Ages". Traditionally, scholarship has placed the arrival of the Croats in the 7th century on the basis of the Byzantine document De Administrando Imperio; as such, the arrival of the Croats was seen as a second wave of Slavic migrations, which liberated Dalmatia from Avar hegemony. However, as early as the 1970s, scholars questioned the reliability of Porphyrogenitus' work, written as it was in the 10th century. Rather than being an accurate historical account, De Administrando Imperio more reflects the political situation during the 10th century.
It served as Byzantine propaganda praising Emperor Heraclius for repopulating the Balkans with Croats, who were seen by the Byzantines as tributary peoples living on what had always been'Roman land'. Scholars have hypothesized the name Croat may be Iranian, thus suggesting that the Croatians were a Sarmatian tribe from the Pontic region who were part of a larger movement at the same time that the Slavs were moving toward the Adriatic; the major basis for this connection was the perceived similarity between Hrvat and inscriptions from the Tanais dated to the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, mentioning the name Khoroathos. Similar arguments have been made for an alleged Gothic-Croat link. Whilst there is indeed possible evidence of population continuity between Gothic and Croatian times in parts of Dalmatia, the idea of a Gothic origin of Croats was more rooted in 20th century Ustaše political aspirations than historical reality. Contemporary scholarship views the rise of "Croats" as an autochthonous, Dalmatian response to the demise of the Avar khanate and the encroachment of Frankish and Byzantine Empires into northern Dalmatia.
They appear to have been based around Klis, down to the Cetina and south of Liburnia. Here, concentrations of the "Old Croat culture" abound, marked by some wealthy warrior burials dating to the 9th century CE. Other, distinct polities existed near the Croat duchy; these included the Guduscans, the Narentines and the Sorabi who ruled some other eastern parts of ex-Roman "Dalmatia". Prominent in the territory of future Croatia was the polity of Prince Liutevid, who ruled the territories between the Drava and Sava rivers, centred from his fort at Sisak. Although Duke Liutevid and his people are seen as a "Pannonian Croats", he is, due to the lack of "evidence that they had a sense of Croat identity" referred to as dux Pannoniae Inferioris, or a Slav, by contemporary sources. However, the Croats became the dominant local power in northern Dalmatia, absorbing Liburnia and expanding their name by conquest and prestige. In the south, while having periods of independence, the Naretines "merged" with Croats under control of Croatian Kings.
With such expansion, Croatia soon became dominant power and absorb other polities between Frankish and Byzantine empire. Although the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja has been dismissed as an unreliable record, the mentioned "Red Croatia" suggests that Croatian clans and families might have settled as far south as Duklja/Zeta and city of Drač in today's Albania; the lands which constitute modern Croatia fell under three major geographic-politic zones during the Middle Ages, which were influenced by powerful neighbour Empires – notably the Byzantines, the Avars and Magyars and Bulgars. Each vied for control of the Northwest Balkan regions. Two independent Slavic dukedoms emerged sometime during the 9th century: the Croat Duchy and Principality of Lower Pannonia. Having been under Avar control, lower Pannonia became a march of the Carolingian Empire around 800. Aided by Vojnomir in 796, the first named Slavic Duke of Pannonia, the Franks wrested control of
Kingdom of Croatia (925–1102)
The Kingdom of Croatia, or Croatian Kingdom, was a medieval kingdom in Central Europe comprising most of what is today Croatia, as well as most of the modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina. Part of the Croatian Kingdom period ruled by ethnic dynasties, the Kingdom existed as a sovereign state for nearly two centuries, its existence was characterized by various conflicts and periods of peace or alliance with the Bulgarians, Byzantines and competition with Venice for control over the eastern Adriatic coast. The goal of promoting the Croatian language in the religious service was brought and introduced by the 10th century bishop Gregory of Nin, which resulted in a conflict with the Pope to be put down by him. In the second half of the 11th century Croatia managed to secure most coastal cities of Dalmatia with the collapse of Byzantine control over them. During this time the kingdom reached its peak under the rule of kings Peter Krešimir IV and Demetrius Zvonimir; the state was ruled by the Trpimirović dynasty until 1091.
At that point the realm experienced a succession crisis and after a decade of conflicts for the throne and the aftermath of the Battle of Gvozd Mountain, the crown passed to the Árpád dynasty with the coronation of King Coloman of Hungary as "King of Croatia and Dalmatia" in Biograd in 1102, uniting the two kingdoms under one crown. The precise terms of the relationship between the two realms became a matter of dispute in the 19th century; the nature of the relationship varied through time, Croatia retained a large degree of internal autonomy overall, while the real power rested in the hands of the local nobility. Modern Croatian and Hungarian historiographies view the relations between Kingdom of Croatia and Kingdom of Hungary from 1102 as a form of a personal union of two internally autonomous kingdoms united by a common king; the first official name of the country was "Kingdom of the Croats", but over the course of time the name "Kingdom of Croatia" prevailed in use. From 1060, when Peter Krešimir IV gained control over coastal cities of the Theme of Dalmatia, earlier under the Byzantine Empire, the official and diplomatic name of the kingdom was "Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia".
Such form of the name lasted until the death of King Stephen II in 1091. The Slavs arrived in the early 7th century in. No contemporary written records about the migration have been preserved not about the events as a whole and from the area itself. Instead, historians rely on records written several centuries after the facts, those records may be based on oral tradition; the Croats were a Slavic tribe, coming from an area around today's Poland or western Ukraine. Many modern scholars believe that the early Croat people, as well as other early Slavic groups, were agricultural populations that were ruled by the nomadic Iranian-speaking Alans, it is unclear whether the Alans contributed much more than a class of warriors. The large scale movements of Slavs are associated with the Avars, a nomadic Turkic group that had settled in the Carpathian basin in late 6th century, subjugating surrounding small Slavic tribes; the book De Administrando Imperio, written in the 10th century, is the most referenced source on the migration of Slavic peoples into southeastern Europe.
It states that the Slavs migrated first around or before year 600 from the region, now Galicia and areas of the Pannonian plain, led by the Avars, to the province of Dalmatia ruled by the Roman Empire. The second wave of migration around year 620, began when the Croats were invited by the Emperor Heraclius to counter the Avar threat on the Byzantine Empire; the Emperor promised the Croats protection if they defeated the Avars, who had earlier expelled the population of Dalmatia. And so, by command of the emperor Heraclius these same Croats defeated and expelled the Avars from those parts, by mandate of Heraclius the emperor they settled down in that same country of the Avars, where they now dwell. De Administrando Imperio mentions an alternate version of the events, where the Croats weren't invited by Heraclius, but instead defeated the Avars and settled on their own accord after migrating from an area near today's Silesia. From those Croats who came to Dalmatia a part settled in Illyricum and Pannonia.
Furthermore, De Administrando Imperio reports a folk tradition that the Croats, who were at the time dwelling beyond Bavaria, were led into the province of Dalmatia by a group of five brothers, Lobel, Kosenc and Hrvat, their two sisters and Buga. After they had fought one another for some years, the Croats prevailed and killed some of the Avars and the remainder they compelled to be subject to them, and so from that time this land was possessed by the Croats, there are still in Croatia some who are of Avar descent and are recognized as Avars. Thomas the Archdeacon, as well as the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja from the 12th century, state that the Croats remained after the Goths had occupied and pillaged the Roman province of Dalmatia; the Chronicle speaks of a Gothic invasion. Archdeacon Thomas in his work Historia Salonitana from the 13th century mentions that with Toti
Croatia
