Zlatina's Korban

The gang's all here.

Shortly after Anne returned from her time in Hungary and the surrounding area, Anne and Mark were invited to Krassi's and Zlatina's house for a celebration they were calling a Korban.  In the Jewish tradition, a Korban is an offering or a sacrifice.  In Bulgaria, it refers to a celebration of the anniversary of a near death experience.  (The use of the same word may be because at the celebration it is tradition to serve lamb at a Bulgarian Korban celebration, a typical sacrifice in many contexts.)

Zlatina and Krassi were kind enough to invite Anne and Mark to the celebration.  Although, this may have been more of a social obligation than a personal invitation - it appeared that most of the town was either in the apartment or had been there earlier.  (Anne and Mark choose to believe they were personally invited.)

From what Anne and Mark could gather, Zlatina had been in a pretty bad skiing accident 15 or 20 years ago and had spent a significant amount of time in the hospital.  Now, on the anniversary of the accident, Zlatina and Krassi hold a Korban, inviting everyone in town (more or less) to their home to celebrate.  At first this seemed a little strange - we normally celebrate our birthdays and wedding anniversaries - the anniversary of happy events in our lives.  Why would anyone celebrate the anniversary of a nearly fatal accident?

However, the Bulgarians look at it completely differently. They do not think of it as the anniversary of the accident, but of the survival.  It is a celebration of life on the anniversaries of the day that a person came closest to losing it.  From that point of view, this is a pretty cool idea.

Zlatina, on the right, and Dani on the day of the Korban.