By Christopher Dacanai FRESH ROASTED CHICKEN — Members of the Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Church Men’s Club helped move fresh roasted chicken during the church’s annual Serbian Festival in Weirton on Saturday.
WEIRTON — Attendees enjoyed family and food at the 2024 Serbia Festival, held Saturday at the newly renovated Serbia Picnic Grounds Pavilion.
Hosted by Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Church in Steubenville, the picnic was filled with music, conversation and homemade food, celebrating Serbian traditions and family ties. The annual picnic, which has been going for nearly 70 years, is the church’s largest fundraiser, according to event chairman Francis Wasko.
“It started out as a picnic for the parishioners,” Wasko said, noting that employment opportunities in the coal mines and steel mills brought Serbian immigrants to the area in the early 1900s. Mingo Junction was home to the first Serbian church, but Holy Resurrection Church wasn’t dedicated until 1948, Wasko said. Wasko has been coming to church picnics since the mid-1900s.
The event has since been opened to the whole region, and the picnic continues to be a major part of the family reunion experience for many. Wasco said many families were separated after the steel mill and mines closed, but they still come together from all over to reunite.
Food was the main focus at the picnic, with the Serbian Men’s Club providing wood-fired lamb and chicken, and church ministers providing cevapi, a sausage made from veal, pork and lamb with various spices.
The women of the parish have made baked goods and food such as cabbage rolls and cabbage noodles. Wasco also made food such as pierogis, hot dogs and pizza, adding, “We try to make something for everyone.”
“What makes us different from other people — and I’m biased of course — is that Serbs make the best lamb and we treat you like family. When you come here, you feel like you’re with family. It’s just not commercialized,” Wasko said.
Wasco said the price of the food will remain the same as last year, which he said was possible thanks to the many donations Holy Resurrection Church has been “blessed” to receive.
John Martich, a lifelong member of Holy Resurrection Church, said he has attended picnics all his life and his grandfather helped clean up after picnics in the 1960s.
About 1,000 people were expected to attend the picnic, so the church prepared 25 roasted lambs, 250 roasted chickens and 2,500 cevapi, Martic said.
While the food is “great,” Martic said, his favorite part of the picnic is seeing “the people I grew up with who have all moved away, mostly for economic reasons, because of the situation at the factory.” “It’s the most fun part, reuniting with them.”
Martic said the picnic was blessed with great weather this year after last year’s terrible storms. The church was also fortunate to be able to celebrate in the picnic grounds’ pavilion, which recently underwent a more than $100,000 renovation by local contractor Cotrill & Son Construction LLC, including a new roof and electrical work.
The site, at 30 Serbian Way, is owned by Holy Resurrection Church and maintained by the Men’s Club, said Martic, a member of the club. Every Wednesday from Memorial Day through Labor Day, the Men’s Club barbecues and sells chicken, with proceeds going to the site’s beatification project.
“Our men’s club has a personal interest in this place,” Martic said, “and it’s not uncommon to come here when there’s no event going on and see a few guys just sitting around talking and having fun.”
The club currently has no other major projects planned for the ground – Martic said the ground is occasionally rented out for other events – and the focus now is on keeping everything in order.
Martic’s grandfather immigrated to the United States before World War I. He said many of his Serbian families emigrated in the 1910s or 1920s after the Balkan wars. Lately, the church has been attracting new members from its pastor in Pittsburgh.
The Rev. Rajko Kosic, who is in his fourth year as pastor at Holy Resurrection Church, noted that the picnic requires a lot of preparation, some well in advance and some days in advance.
“It takes a lot of people to work in an organized way. We’re lucky and blessed. We’re a great group, very organized and everyone helps each other out.”
The church is “really united,” he said, adding that it has seen many young families with children join.
Kosic said her favorite meal at the picnic was the cevapi, which she helped prepare, but all the food was delicious because it was all homemade.
Kosick said of the picnic, “What I love most is seeing people so happy, enjoying themselves, having a great time. We’re all having a good time. … God has given us such beautiful weather out here. It couldn’t get any better. It’s truly a blessing.”
Among those who used the picnic as a family reunion were the Yazevac family, including Sally Wilson, who grew up near Burgettstown as one of Mildred Yazevac’s 14 children.
Wilson recalled her family getting together to take her mother on picnics, and although they drifted apart for a time after her mother passed away, they have reunited annually for the past 20 years.
Wilson, the youngest of the siblings and the only one still living, was surrounded on Saturday by her nieces and nephews, all of whom are of Serbian descent, and their families. She said it was “wonderful” to be able to reunite with them each year for the picnic.
Serbian songs blared from the speakers, the Radost Tamburica band played folk songs in the bar, and audience members could take money, punch a hole in it, and place it on the tuning pegs of the performers’ instruments to request songs.
At the bar, attendees could sample slivovic, or Serbian plum brandy. One bar patron, Mark Zatezalo, called the picnic his “favorite place in the world.”
Zatesaro recalled how his father and his friends, who returned from World War II, built the compound, which was officially established in 1949. They were all wonderful people, and they treated him very well, he recalled.
“I think of all those who came before me and I’m glad (the picnic) is still going on. … Everyone involved with World War II would be happy.”
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