Gracanica Festival to Honor Prince Saint Lazar

I'm a little slow getting this posted as this occurred on June 26. We went to visit our friends in Gracanica this night and it just so happened that a big celebration was going on at the monastery. So we all walked down there and the street was packed. There were vendors set up selling food, drinks, jewelry, clothing and so on. Inside the monastery grounds music, poem reading, and dancing were presented. I had to show you this girl who was participating in a "beauty" pageant of sorts. It really isn't a beauty pageant in the way we think about it. It's more about the girl that best embodies Serbian young womanhood. I L-O-V-E the traditional clothes that she is wearing. All the children who performed that night also were wearing traditional clothing. There were no cheap costumes made the night before on these people. These costumes are handed down from generation to generation. They're all handmade, hand embroidered and young women were expected to make a set of clothing before they married.
Some women were there displaying some of these traditional costumes. Almost no one was selling any. The ones that were for sale were very expensive and if you could see the detailed handwork you would understand why.
It was a really fun and interesting night. The weather was perfect and everyone was in a really good mood having fun.