Arbutina: We should keep Vidovdan deep within us, that is where it is safest

Acting Director of the Museum of Genocide Victims in Belgrade Bojan Arbutina said that June 28 is the date on which the Serbian people essentially defined themselves as a nation and chose the path of their future survival. He added that the best way to protect Vidovdan from historical revisionism, which has been present for years, is to preserve it within ourselves, where, he says, it is safest.

Speaking to Kosovo Online, Arbutina said that Vidovdan is the day on which the Serbian people come together.

"Vidovdan is an important date in our history, in our collective past, and it is significant both for Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija and for the Serbian people as a whole, because Vidovdan is the date around which we formed our covenant. It is the date on which we essentially decided, as a nation, who we would be and how we would endure in the future, and it remains a defining date for us today. Vidovdan is present throughout the entire Serbian people. It is an important date for our identity and an important symbol of our nation. It is one of those rare days in our history that unites the entire Serbian people, and it is necessary to commemorate and celebrate it for the sake of our future," he said.

Arbutina stressed that there have been continuous attempts to rewrite history, but that it is everyone's responsibility to preserve the significance of Vidovdan.

"We witness this constantly, not only regarding Vidovdan but our entire history. As someone who studies the 20th century, I have noticed this tendency particularly over the past several years. However, through remembrance, conversations and various forms of commemorative culture, it is our task to preserve the importance of Vidovdan. Looking throughout history, from the Battle of Kosovo to the present day, major turning points in our history have occurred on that date. Of course, various individuals and scholars, not only from the nations surrounding us but unfortunately also from among our own people, have tried to diminish the significance of Vidovdan. But as historians, lawyers, sociologists and everyone engaged in social issues, it is our responsibility to prevent such historical revisionism and preserve Vidovdan in our collective memory," Arbutina said.

He believes that the Serbian people will best protect Vidovdan from appropriation by preserving it in their own consciousness, because that is where it is safest.

"We can adopt various declarations, and we can proclaim certain dates important or unimportant by different decrees, but unless we internalize Vidovdan deeply, nothing will prevent either us or others from erasing it completely. We must first work with ourselves, with our people, and above all with our children, passing on to them the covenant that has preserved us through centuries of existence in these lands. That is the strongest protection against any attempt to erase Vidovdan from our collective consciousness," Arbutina said.