Magic in Boston: Santa with a Croatian Dialect

Festive atmosphere dominated the lively Christmas party traditionally organized by the Boston Croatian community, whose members hail from many Croatian towns as well as from other areas, including the other US states, Canada and Bosnia…

The attendees enjoyed seeing each other and hearing updates on the many fundraising and charitable activities of the Croatian Boston community, while sipping the Croatian wines bought especially for this event.

“The most spiritual element of the party was the singalong of Christmas songs, and singing in Croatian added a lot of meaning in this special holiday time,” said Mirena Bagur, president of the New England Friends of Croatia, a not-for-profit organization helping Croatians living or visiting New England, as well as supporting Croatia. “Having two tamburitza players lead Radujte se narodi and U to vrime godišća, added to the festivities and insured everyone had a great time.”

This year the annual party took place at the Sabur Restaurant whose owners from Sarajevo have welcomed the Friends of Croatia events over the years.

They made sure that the main meal consisted of traditional Croatian “purica i pečena prasica,” while Croatian bakers, members of the Boston community, brought the desserts – from “orehnjača to štrudla and bajamini.”

Many dialects were heard as catching up on family and business updates took place among the guests. But the biggest surprise to all was the arrival of the special guest who brought Kiki bomboni as presents for the youngest attendees, and wished all the guests, in a perfect Split dialect: Sritan Božić!

The New England Friends of Croatia, www.friendsofcroatia.org, and the Croatian School of Boston, www.croatianschoolofboston.org, jointly organized the event at the Sabur Restaurant, www.saburrestaurant.com.