Amador County – It will begin to sound a lot like Serbian Christmas at about 1 p.m. Saturday, when black powder blank gunfire will again fill the Jackson air as local families celebrate in the traditional way to mark the Serbian Christmas.

Patti Busch of the Jackson Business and Community Association announced the plans of local Serbian orthodox church members who plan to mark the Serbian Christmas, with the Jackson tradition at three locations in Jackson, including in front of the National Hotel on Main Street, at the Saint Sava Church North Main Street, and at the Saint Sava Mission on Broadway.

Busch’s announcement said “it’s Serbian Christmas,” and “Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from our proud Serbian neighbors.”

Busch said Beau Gillman of Matich Vukovich Insurance asked the Jackson Business and Community Association “to help get out the word that this coming Saturday, Jan. 7, is Serbian Christmas.”

For more than 100 years, Busch said, “our Serbian-American population has marked this day with a volley of rifle shots to announce that Christ is born.” This year the short parade will take place on Main Street in Jackson around 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, with a police escort and the firing of the rifles in front of The National Hotel.

Busch said: “I think that the rifles are also fired at Saint Sava’s Church on North Main Street and at Saint Sava Mission on Broadway.”

The tradition dates back to more than 100 years in Jackson, and was brought from some old country practices, which in some Serbian practices included firing guns at dawn on Christmas eve, or an early morning departure by family members to go and select and cut a “badnjak” log, to burn on Christmas Eve, according to Wikipedia. Another Serbian Christmas day celebration is announced at dawn by church bells and by shooting guns or “celebratory mortars” called “prangijas.”

A 1987 L.A. Times article online, “Why, It Sounds Like a Serbian Christmas,” by Charles Hillinger, said that even then, 24 years ago, it was a tradition with more than a century of history in Jackson, combining Old West and old Serbian traditions. Saint Sava church members and families in the last couple of years have resumed the parade tradition down Main Street in Jackson.

Busch said: “Be prepared for some bang-banging noise around 1 p.m. But know that you are safe and all is well. It’s your neighbors celebrating and keeping alive the rich traditions of the old country, and wishing you every happiness this Holiday Season, with great prosperity and good health in the New Year.”

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.