The holiday season is behind us, among all the gifts that were exchanged, one was notably missing: the primorski vez or Primorje knot. If they were gifted then it was most certainly by people from the Primorje region wishing to preserve tradition in modern times. Young people and children have rarely heard of the traditional gift, let alone seen or prepared one. Thankfully Slano Primary School has made keeping up traditions and learning about forgotten ways almost a requirement for pupils and teachers alike with the help of Marija Weltrusky. Marija has shared her skills with pupils of the school and together with two pupils (Nikolina Delalija and Ivana Raguž) visited Dubrovnik based association ‘Deša’ to teach children from Dubrovnik’s Marin Getaldić Primary School how to make a Primorje knot as well as the history and tradition behind it.
The knot consists of an apple with 12 or 24 olive twigs on which are threaded laurel leaves and dried figs all tied together with a red ribbon to make a simple gift full of symbolism that was gifted to hosts by visiting guests who would carol sing at Christmas time. With a Primorje knot in hand people would visit their families, friends and god parents, girls would gift their boyfriends with a twig from one as a symbol of love.
