Every Day Is Special: October 21 – Remembrance Day in Serbia

October 21 – Remembrance Day in Serbia

Posted October 21, 2016

Today is set aside in Serbia to remember the victims of World War II.

That sounds relatively normal sad-and-solemn occasion, a day to remember soldiers who died in wartime – but it is not normal-sad, it's tragic-and-terrible sad, because the victims were so numerous. Also, most of the victims were not armed, trained soldiers, but instead ordinary people with no way to defend themselves. During WWII there were many, many Serbian civilians murdered, many expelled out of their homes and homeland, many forcibly converted to Catholicism. It is called the Serbian Genocide, and it was carried out by a particular regime leading the Independent State of Croatia, by Albanians who collaborated with the Nazis, and by the Nazis themselves.

So...what is Serbia known for that isn't tragic-and-terrible?

Great things in Serbia

Raspberries!

Apparently Serbia is #1 in growing raspberries – they grow almost one third of the entire world's supply!

Natural beauty!

Devil's Town is actually a natural spring located among some rock formations:

Uvac is a lake with “meanders” – which are figure-S-like shapes:

Krupajsko Vrelo, Lisene, and Tupavica are gorgeous waterfalls. Like other nearby European countries, Serbia is known for karst landscapes, which typically have amazing caves, pools, and waterfalls:

By the way, Tupavica is gorgeous even when it is frozen over:

Tesla!

Nikola Tesla was a Serb (although he was from Croatia); he moved to the United States at age 28 and began working for Thomas Edison. Then he decided to start his own laboratory, where he developed many electrical devices.