British wartime poster promoting solidarity and friendship with the Serbian allies during theSerbian Campaign of World War I
The day became highly regarded by Serbs after the fourteenth century when theBattle of Kosovo took place on Saint Vitus Day in 1389.[2] A Serb-led Christian coalition byPrince Lazar fought theOttoman army on theKosovo field.[3] Although the battle itself was inconclusive, and both SultanMurad and Prince Lazar were slain, it led to the Ottoman conquest of Serbian principalities.[4] After theGreat Migrations of the Serbs in 1690, Vidovdan became a day to honor those who fought in the battle and fell "for their faith and homeland".[5] The holiday was institutionalized by the church in 1849 and politically and publicly first celebrated in 1851 as a representation of the struggle for Serbian freedom from Ottoman subjection.[5] It slowly achieved popularity with the growth of national identities in Europe in the nineteenth century and came to be known as a day of remembrance. After 1918, the Yugoslav government designated Vidovdan as a day of remembrance to honor all those who died in war, particularly those of theBalkan Wars andWorld War I.[6][7]
There are significant events which coincidentally or intentionally occurred on Vidovdan:[8]
Serbiandeclaration of war against the Ottoman Empire in 1876 (from 1800 to 1899, Vidovdan was celebrated on 15 June Julian = 27 June Gregorian)
TheCominform Resolution calling for regime change in Yugoslavia is published in 1948 on Soviet initiative.
On the 600th anniversary of the battle of Kosovo (1989), Serbian leaderSlobodan Milošević delivered theGazimestan speech on the site of the battle. This was the first public celebration of Vidovdan since the Yugoslav communist era.[8]
Beginning in the late 19th century, Serbian publications began to appear in Serbian literature promoting the idea that the holiday originated from the Slavic godSvetovit. The first to put forth such a view wasNatko Nodilo, who attributed the cult of Svetovit to all Slavs, whose worship in Serbia was later deliberately replaced by that of a saint with a similar name. This view was supported by some later researchers. However, it is generally believed that the cult of Svetovit existed only among thePolabian Slavs and that Vidovdan has nothing to do with this god, and that linking the deity to the holiday is a creation ofromanticism.[10][11]
Miodrag, Marković (2007). "Култ светог Вита (Вида) код Срба у средњем веку".Зограф: часопис за средњовековну уметност (in Serbian).31. Belgrad: Филозофски факултет Институт за историју уметности:35–50.ISSN0350-1361.
