The central part of the 61st Kočić’s Gathering was held at the venue in Stričići. In the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Stričići, a memorial service was held for Petar Kočić and his father Gerasim, in addition to a memorial service for homeland heroes at the monument to the fallen soldiers. Kočić’s Gathering was officially opened in Banja Luka on 27 August, and during the four-day event, numerous literary, cultural, artistic and traditional events were organized at several locations in Banja Luka, Stričići, Gomionica, Jelićka and Belgrade.

The Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Srpska, Borivoje Golubović, said in Stričići that Kočić’s Gathering was an event that had been preserving the memory of Petar Kočić’s character and work for decades and reminded us of the values he had stood for – freedom, justice, human dignity and the power of the written word. – The homeland is a field where sowing and reaping are constant. We reap what our ancestors sowed, and we sow so that our descendants have something to reap. These words of Kočić were spoken more than a century ago, and today, in his native Zmijanje, they strongly resonate in all of us – said Golubović at the central event dedicated to the memory of Petar Kočić. He noted it was a permanent obligation of all generations to preserve what their ancestors had left behind, but also to create values to be left to future generations.

Golubović recalled that Kočić had planted deeply Zmijanje and Manjača in Serbian literature through his work. – At the same time, Kočić’s work is not only part of our literary heritage. It is part of our cultural and spiritual identity – Golubović stated.

This year’s laureate of the Kočić Award is Predrag Bjelošević from Banja Luka, while the Zmijanjče award went to Ivona Arsić from Štrpci near Rudo, a fifth-grade student at the Boško Buha Elementary School.

The President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska, Nenad Stevandić, said that the current generation of Serbs lived in the freedom that the great Petar Kočić had written about and that, having learned from history, they would never bow down. The Minister of Justice of the Republic of Srpska, Goran Selaka, said it was important to nurture and support such events, because they were not only cultural events, but also a way of preserving historical and cultural heritage. – It is especially important that people gather here not only from the Republic of Srpska, but also from our homeland Serbia, as well as from all parts of the world where Serbs live. We thus come together, preserve unity and recall the values that our great writers and cultural creators have left through their work – said Selak.

Source and photo: RTRS