Канцеларија Њ.К.В. Престолонаследника Александра II
________________________________
The Office of H.R.H. Crown Prince Alexander II
Daily news papersPravda , 31 March 2009
SERBIAHAS RETURNED TO
THE RIGHT
SYMBOLS
Crown and Double-headed eagle are symbols of the Serbia ’s sovereignty!
Hungary, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Russia have a Crown although they are all
republics
Serbia’s Parliament is to adopt today a law regarding use of the state
symbols. It has been three years since the Constitution to establish a flag,
coat of arms and anthem was endorsed; it is the statute’s turn now. Dragoljub
Acovic, one of the leading Serbian heraldists, thinks that by passing this law
Serbia has finally, “after half of century of Communist darkness and Bolshevik
symbols imposed on her, returned to her ancient symbols that personify her
statehood and tradition”.
- Although the state symbols have been in daily use for three years, it seems
that some in this country still have a problem with the Crown on the flag or
double-headed eagle on the coat of arms.
Such questions are being constantly repeated. As like repeating that two and
two are four, some media - and among them there is a television station that is
especially surpassing the others - constantly insist that Serbia is by its
Constitution a republic and it should not have monarchist symbols on its coat
of arms and flag. This is nonsense since the crown is a symbol of sovereignty
and our tradition. The cross on its top represents our faith and union with
God and by no means the crown on the coat of arms and flag symbolize
governmental structure.
- The opponents of current state symbols are objecting exactly to this to the
coat of arms and flag: that they represent a monarchy in a state that is a
republic.
All of those who make such objections should be informed firstly how many
countries there are have monarchist symbols in their state’s coats of arms,
although they are not kingdoms. I shall mention only some: in its official
state symbols Bulgaria, Hungary, Montenegro, Albania, The Russian Federation
have a crown … The double-headed eagle is also a sign of tradition. It is an
ancient symbol and in Serbia it is a part of the Roman Empire, e.g. Byzantium’s
tradition. It came into our heritage with Stefan the First Crowned, the first
Serbian king. A double-headed eagle could be also found in coats of arms of
some states which have not a Christian tradition, for instance some Indian
states. The current Serbian coat of arms, which was endorsed three years ago
by Constitution and now by
law as well, was set up in 1882 by Stojan Novakovic and had been in use up to
1918 and the establishment of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
By combining two coats of arms - a cross with firesteels and a silver
double-headed eagle - the Serbian coat of arms was created. This principal
part of the coat of arms is followed by a crown and a royal cape with ermine
lining featured in the background. The royal cape is very important as a
symbol because its surface is purple, and this is the colour of the kingdom.
This had deep symbolism in ancient history, when it was thought that an
ermine’s characteristic was that it was prepared to be killed rather than get
soiled! This symbolized the obligation of power to be pure and totally above
any reproach.
- A subject of a public discussion in media is the Serbia’s anthem “Boze
pravde” (Lord of Justice). Some object to the text because it is allegedly
insulting the atheists, as well as to the fact that it was not written to be a
formal state’s song but as an opera libretto
This is nonsense. These groundless conclusions come from parts of society who
object to everything Serbian and traditional! It is true that “Boze pravde”
(Lord of Justice) was written as a part of a libretto for the opera “Marko’s
saber”, whose first night took place in 1872, in honour of King Milan
Obrenovic’s coming of age, but I see nothing controversial in it. The text was
written by Jovan Djordjevic, the music composed by Davorin Jenko and the song
very quickly reached the hearts of the people and became generally accepted as
an anthem. May I remind you that the German state’s anthem is a part from the
opera composed by Joseph Haydn back in 1797 and this doesn’t bother Germans -
quite contrary! I wonder then why this would bother us. Regarding the
comments that mention God in anthems is bothering and even insulting atheists,
I can only say that this is ridiculous since according to the official census
there is only 0,5 % of
citizens in Serbia declaring themselves as atheists and I doubt that anyone of
them is offended by a text of the anthem that speaks about love towards country
and justice.
- It will be finally stated by law in which way and on what occasion the flag
and anthem may be used.
This concerns more the flag than anthem. We had opportunities to see until now
that the flag is placed, even on some state institutions, in various manners,
sometimes it was even touching the ground, and any flag in the world must not
do that! We must learn as a society and nation to respect and use the symbols
of our country because they carry our identity and our history.
S. Milovanovic
------------------
King “taken out” from the anthem as a favour to a section of the public
* The original text of the anthem “Boze pravde” was changed in 2006 by
taking out a verse “Lord save, Lord feed, the Serbian king, the Serbian people”
and was replaced by a verse “Serbian lands, Serbian people”. How do you
comment a disappearance of the king from the Serbian anthem?
- That was a classic favour to a section of the public who was bothered by the
mentioning of the king in the anthem of the state which is a republic. These
arguments are similar to those of today regarding the crown on the coat of
arms. However a working group for the endorsement of the state symbols, whose
part I was as well, concluded that at the time it was better to make this
change and calm down the public opinion, so that “Boze pravde” finally, after a
half of century, become again the anthem of Serbia rather than to insist on the
original text and not approve the anthem, and therefore we keep listening for
next half of century to “Hey, Slavs”,
--------------------
After a half of century of Bolshevik symbols, we have returned to the symbols
of our statehood and tradition.
================
Dnevni list Pravda , 31. mart 2009.
KONAČNO SMO SE VRATILI PRAVIM SIMBOLIMA SRBIJE
Kruna na zastavi i dvoglavi orao na grbu su simboli suverenosti Srbije! Krunu u
grbovima imaju i Mađarska, Bugarska, Crna Gora i Ruska Federacija, a takođe su
republike
Ateista u Srbiji je svega 0,5 posto, i ne mislim da njih vređa pominjanje Boga
u našoj himni
Posle pola veka komunističkog mraka i naturenih boljševičkih znamenja, vratili
smo se simbolima koji oličavaju našu državnost i tradiciju
U Skupštini Srbije danas se usvaja Zakon o upotrebi državnih simbola. Tri
godine posle donošenja Ustava, kojim su utvrđeni zastava, grb i himna, zakon je
stigao na red. Dragoljub Acović, jedan od vodećih srpskih heraldičara, smatra
da se ovim zakonom Srbija konačno, „posle pola veka komunističkog mraka i
naturenih boljševičkih znamenja, vratila starim simbolima, koji koji oličavaju
njenu državnost i tradiciju".
Iako su državni simboli već tri godine u svakodnevnoj upotrebi, čini se da
nekima u ovoj zemlji i dalje smeta kruna na zastavi ili dvoglavi orao na grbu?
- Ta se pitanja stalno ponavljaju. Kao kada biste ponavljali neprekidno da su
dva i dva četiri, tako i neki mediji, među kojima jedna televizija posebno
prednjači, stalno insistiraju na tome da je Srbija po ustavnom rešenju
republika, i da ne treba da ima monarhistička znamenja na grbu i zastavi. To su
besmislice, jer kruna je simbol suvereniteta i naše tradicije. Krst na njenom
vrhu označava našu veru i sjedinjenje sa Bogom i ni u kom slučaju kruna na grbu
i zastavi ne označava državno uređenje.
Protivnici sadašnjih državnih znamenja upravo to prigovaraju grbu i zastavi: da
predstavljaju monarhiju u državi koja je republika.
- Svi koji daju takve prigovore trebalo bi prethodno da se informišu koliko je
zemalja sa monarhističkim znamenjima u državnim grbovima, a koje nisu
kraljevine. Navešću vam samo neke: krune u svojim zvaničnim državnim simbolima
imaju Bugarska, Mađarska, Crna Gora, Albanija, Ruska Federacija... Dvoglavi
orao je takođe simbol tradicije. To je drevno znamenje i kod Srba je deo
tradicije Romejskog carstva, odnosno Vizantije, i u naše kulturno nasleđe
dolazi sa Stefanom Prvovenčanim, prvim srpskim kraljem. Dvoglavi orao se nalazi
i u grbovima nekih država koje nemaju hrišćansku tradiciju, poput nekih
indijskih država na primer. Sadašnji grb Srbije, koji je pre tri godine utvrđen
Ustavom, a sada i zakonskim rešenjima, stvorio je 1882. godine Stojan Novaković
i kao takav bio je u upotrebi do 1918. i stvaranja Kraljevine SHS. Grb Srbije
je nastao spajanjem dva grba - krsta sa ocilima i srebrnog dvoglavog orla. Taj
osnovni deo grba prate kruna
i kraljevski ogrtač sa postavom od hermelina. Kraljevski ogrtač je kao simbol
inače jako važan, jer je njegova spoljašnjost purpurna, a to je boja
kraljevstva, što ima utemeljenje i simboliku u davnoj istoriji, kada se
smatralo da je osobina hermelina da će pre da se ubije nego da se isprlja! To
je simbolizovalo obavezu vlasti da bude uvek čista i potpuno neporočna.
Predmet javne rasprave u medijima je i himna Srbije „Bože pravde", kojoj se
zameraju tekst, jer navodno vređa osećanja ateista, kao i činjenica da nije
pisana za svečanu pesmu države već za operski libreto.
- To su sve besmislice i neutemeljeni izvodi, koji potiču od delova društva
kojima smeta sve što je srpsko i tradicionalno! Tačno je da je „Bože pravde"
nastala kao deo libreta za operu „Markova sablja", koja je premijerno izvedena
1872. godine, u čast punoletstva kralja Milana Obrenovića, ali tu ne vidim
ništa sporno. Pesma, čiji je tekst napisao Jovan Đorđević, a muziku komponovao
Davorin Jenko, vrlo je brzo ušla u narod i postala opšte prihvaćena kao himna.
Podsetiću vas da je i nemačka državna himna deo opere koju je komponovao Jozef
Hajdn još 1797. godine, i to Nemcima nimalo ne smeta - naprotiv! Pitam se zašto
bi onda smetalo nama? Što se tiče komentara da pominjanje Boga u himni smeta
ateistima i da im čak vređa osećanja, mogu samo da kažem da je to smešno, jer
po zvaničnom popisu u Srbiji ima svega 0,5 posto stanovnika koji se
izjašnjavaju kao ateisti, i ne verujem da se iko od njih nalazi uvređenim
tekstom himne
koja govori o ljubavi prema državi i pravdi.
Zakonom će konačno biti utvrđeno na koji način i u kojim prilikama zastava i
himna mogu da se koriste.
- To se čak više odnosi na zastavu nego na himnu, jer smo do sada imali prilike
da vidimo da se zastava, čak i na nekim državnim institucijama, postavljala na
razne načine, nekad je čak i dodirivala tlo, a to nijedna zastava na svetu ne
sme! Moramo se kao društvo i nacija naučiti da poštujemo i koristimo simbole
svoje zemlje, jer oni nose naš identitet i našu istoriju.
S. Milovanović
Kralj „izbačen" iz himne kao ustupak delu javnosti
• Originalan tekst himne ..Bože pravde" je promenjen 2006. godine, tako štoje
iz druge strofe izbačen stih ..Bože spasi, Bože hrani, srpskog kralja, srpski
rod" i zamenjen stihom „srpske zemlje, srpski rod". Kako komentarišete nestanak
kralja iz srpske himne?
- To je bio jedan klasičan ustupak delu javnosti kome je smetalo da se kralj
pominje u himni države koja je republika. To su slični argumenti kao i ovi
sada, oko krune na grbu i zastavi, ali radna grupa za donošenje državnih
simbola, u čijem sam radu i ja učestvovao, zaključila je tada da je bol>e
napraviti tu izmenu i smi-riti javnost, pa da „Bože pravde" konačno, posle pola
veka, posta-ne ponovo himna Srbije nego da insistiramo na originalnom tekstu i
ne donesemo himnu, i da još pola veka slušamo „Hej Sloveni".
________________________________
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Beo4Srbija 0, grad 110
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The Royal Palace
Belgrade11040 , Serbia
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Fax:+381 11 306 4040
Please visit: www.royal.rs
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