Jovan Jonovski, Mojso Popovski
Macedonian Heraldic Society,
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2448-3441
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0078-0791
UDC 929.9:392.51(497.7)
Abstract
Wedding flags—bayraks — are a special type of ritual flags, which have primarily reliquary and religious aspects and are used only for wedding ceremonies. Flags from the Mijak ethnic group and other such flags are known in Macedonia. The text describes and classifies eight wedding flags, from the Museum of Macedonia, the Museum of Krushevo, a private collection, and photos where the flags can be seen in full.
Keywords: Wedding flag, Mijak flag, Macedonian flag, bayrak.
A flag is a piece of flexible material attached on one side so that it can be flown in the wind and serves as a sign or decoration (Znamierowski 1999, 24). The word for flag in Macedonian, zname, comes from the Old Slavic word znameni, which could be translated as “mark” (Јоновски 2019, 23). The term bayrak comes from the Ottoman-Turkish word bayarak (قاریب), which simply means “flag”.
In Macedonian vexillological terminology, bayrak denotes the most common type of flag, one whose length is greater than its width (Nacevski 2013, 26). In this article the word bayrak is used as an archaic form of the word for flag, regardless of its shape. The flag in “primitive” society primarily has a ritual function; it is sacred and is a channel through which the source of power is present, be it ancestors, gods, or nature. The flag transmits its magical powers to the group and later to all who live in one territory (Smith 1968, 97, 95). Vexillology deals with the study of flags as a sociological phenomenon, the circumstances under which a flag appeared and was used, and the way in which certain social groups identify with a flag (Smith 2009, 41). Vexillography deals with the study of flag design as well as flag creation (Spain 2017). Flags can be used to convey a message and can be important symbols of national pride (Gizarovski 2010, 9). The flag has four basic functions and applications; it can be used as a decoration, signal, relic, or symbol (Heimer 2013, 55). The flag as an ornament is the decoration of a given space with flags, such as decorating for events, parties, etc. Even state flags can sometimes be used merely as decoration, such as flags in front of a hotel. Here we look at two types of flags:
The flag as a relic – these flags indicate some kind of action or communication which is primarily aimed not at other people, but at the deity. Of this type are procession and ritual flags, which also include wedding flags.
The flag as a symbol – these flags contain an emotional element that accompanies the symbolism of identity. Thus the value of the flag exceeds its material value, as a result the flag itself acquires a certain sacredness. The flag as an identity symbol identifies the owner, indicating his presence, function, position, property. The owner can be an individual, a collective, or a group. The flag is a symbol of the unity and identity of a given group; it is also used to unite the group. It is a symbol of group identity and authority, a symbolic representation of common values and continuity of existence, enabling coordination of action, collective memory, tradition, and history (Hałas 2002, 7). Through the flag, the individual is identified as part of a group by those in the group, but also by others outside the group.
RITUAL WEDDING FLAGS
The primary role of the ritual wedding flag isto play a part in the wedding ceremony, drawing special attention through the rite of decorating it. Unfortunately, this topic is very poorly researched. In Ethnography of the Macedonians, the article “Customs around birth, wedding and dying” mentions the bayraktar (flag bearer) several times, but does not mention the flag at all (Наумова 1996, 212).
Weddings were usually held around the holidays and the decoration of the flag was part of the overall preparation of the bride, the groom, and their homes, and is associated with almost all the customs of the wedding. In this case, the wedding flags had a ritual function related to the wedding, rather than being used as a symbol of identity of a tribe or territory, or as an insurgent / military unit flag.
In this article we will examine these ritual flags, used mostly (or most likely exclusively) for weddings. We will examine eight flags: three from the Museum of Macedonia in Skopje, one from the museum in Krushevo, one from a private collection, as well as two flags from photographs and one from a drawing. We will also consider a modern flag which, although it is a reconstruction of an old wedding flag, aspires to become a flag to identify an entire group. The flags will be classified and presented by type. (At least six other such flags are known in photos, but they are not fully visible and deserve more space in another article.)
The largest group is the Mijak flags, whichhave recently aroused increased interest in the study and re-affirmation of folk flags and their use.
MIJAKS (mkd. Мијаци)
The Mijaks are a sub-group of ethnic Macedonians inhabiting the valley of the river Radika in western Macedonia, an area called Reka (Македония 1945, 173). It is divided into Gorna, Dolna Reka, and Mala Reka (Трайчев 1941, 3), and the river Mala Reka gives the entire region its name (Смиљанић 1925, 7). Today, most of the region is part of the municipality of Mavrovo-Rostushe and smaller parts belong to the municipalities of Gostivar and Debar.
Under the Ottoman Empire, the Reka areahad the status of a nahiye (administrative entity) within the Debar kaza (district) of the Ohrid Sanjak (territory) (Поповски 2009). The population was in the service of the dervendji— guarding parts of the roads near their settlements. Although that service was mostly performed by Christians, they were guaranteed the right to bear arms (Тодоровски 1970,47).
Marko Gligorov believed the Mijaks’ namederived from their frequent washing and cleaning (mije means “washing”) (Григоровъ 1907, 204). Arseni Aleksiev writes that “Mijaks” derives from the first person plural pronoun mije (“we”) which was characteristic of the Mijaks and their vernacular but also adds that the name Mijak stems from the insistence of Mijak to disagree with things in general, answering “Niest – mieci” – Mijaci (Алексиев 1914, 40). The population of Reka interested ethnologists, Slavic linguists, and historians from the neighboring Balkan peoples from the mid-19th century to the 1940s. The most important researchers to write about the Mijaks were Jastrebov, Drinov, Tomic, Cvijic, Kanchov, Selishchev, Smiljanic, Trajchev, Aleksiev, and Grigorov.
MIJAK FLAGS
Mazhovski noted, without solid data supporting his historical-chronological gap, “after the fall of Macedonia under Roman rule, Rome allowed some of the western Macedonian Slavs to use their hitherto military flags only at weddings.” Mazhovski further described them as “the height of the pole was 2 meters and the thickness 4 to 5 cm ... the length of the fabric was 1.5 meter and the width was 1 meter. ... The flags were red on the edges and the inside was white ... The symbols of the different flags were bear, lion, crescent, and hand. Those flags still exist in Macedonia, but today they are preserved only in the Debar area and with the old customs used at weddings. They are used in the villages Galichnik, Lazaropole, Tresonche, Gari, Osoj, Jance, Velebrdo, Bituse, Kosovrasti, and Melnichani.” (Ibid.) Mazhovski stated that until 100 years ago, there were similar flags in other parts of Macedonia, especially in the Kostur area, but they were destroyed by Ottoman authorities. Furthermore, Mazhovski described the custom of displaying the flag during the wedding of the Mijaks as well as a song that was performed during this custom.
Another who mentioned the Mijak flag is the ethnologist Smiljanic, who wrote about the Mijaks several times, and the Mijak flag at least three times. First, he wrote that after the battle of Kosovo (1389) the Mijaks settled in the Reka region, and that the “cross flag” they use is actually a Kosovo flag, which became a public symbol for the Mijaks (Смиљанић 1921, 230). He then describes a time when the Mijaks were allowed to use their flag freely within the Ottoman Empire. In his explanation he talks about a cross flag, which they gained the right to use after 1689, “because they remained faithful…” to the sultan in the battles against Piccolomini. Smiljanic, in this work and in all later works, does not cite the source for this dispensation or for the single flag of all the Mijaks. Smiljanic adds that “the red-white-blue flag with the cross on the top of the staff is not forbidden either” (Smiljanić 1924, 73). Elsewhere, Smiljanic described a different flag that is red above and below, and white in the middle. In the center is a circle like the sun and around it can be seen the old double-headed eagle, a lion, a dog, an armed horseman, and so on. There are crosses in the corners and somewhere a crescent. Atop the staff is a beautiful cross without the crucifixion of Christ, decorated with carvings and clad in gold (Смиљанић 1925, 36). Petrovic wrote that before the liberation from the Turks, a red flag with a white cross was used in the Mijak area, and now the state flag (red-white-blue) is used as a wedding flag (Петровић 1931, 92). It is not known whether Smiljanic meant the state flag (of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), or that such a flag, which is quite different from all other known Mijak flags, once existed among the Mijaks or some Mijak family.
In Georgi Trajchev’s 1941 book About the Mijaks is a black-and-white drawing and description of a wedding flag from the Mala Reka region. He writes that the flag was used exclusively for weddings in the groom’s house. Wedding flags existed only in more prestigious houses, but people would lend them for weddings to other homes that did not have their own (Trajchev 1941, 94–95). Trajchev, in the chapter "Mijak Flag”, actually responds to an article by a Colonel St. Stamatov in the magazine Mir about how the lion (i.e., the coat of arms with a lion) found itself on the Bulgarian flag. Stamatov claimed that the Mijak flag with a lion is the same as the Bulgarian flag which has been kept in the Debar area since the fall of Bulgaria to the Ottomans in 1395. Following the belief that each symbol on this flag should be someone’s state symbol, Trajchev explains that the other charges symbolize the rule of Byzantium and Serbia (eagle), Albania (dragon), and Turkey (crescent with a star). Such an explanation forgets that it is a ritual wedding flag, instead giving it chronographic features with state elements of previous occupiers and “administrators”. Vexillology knows no flag that represents all occupiers over ten centuries and yet is the identity flag of a given group!
Although the other Mijak flags have a circle in the middle, there is no prosphora—the bread used in communion in the Orthodox Church— depicted in the center of this one. Trajchev was an educational inspector of the Bulgarian Exarchate in the Debar area, but probably more than 20 years had passed between his encounter with the Mijak flag and the publication of his book.
The drawing shows that three colors were used on the fabric. The field is white, while the details are in two other colors, which here we will call light and dark. The flag is bordered with light-dark triangles, with 10 dark and 11 light triangles on the upper and lower sides of the frame, and 8 dark and 9 light triangles on the hoist and fly sides, with two light triangles touching the corners.
The dark triangles are turned outward andthe light ones inward. There are pendants on the fly corners. In the middle of the flag is a white circle, edged by 42 triangles, alternating light turned from the center and dark facing the center, with a bright bezant cross in the middle (a bezant is a gold coin, this one has a cross cut from a circle and the center has another circle). In the four areas between the arms is the text ИС ХС НИ КА (Jesus Christ the Conqueror) in the dark color. This represents the “lamb”, the central part of the prosphora. In the four corners are small dark-colored figures facing the center of the flag. On the hoist side is a dragon (above) and a double-headed eagle without wings, with a cross with four furisons (fire steels) on its chest (below), on the fly side is a lion or wolf (above) and a crescent, with horns upward, with a star (below). Atop the staff, which is painted a lightdark (per bend), is a lily cross with a bezant. This flag has not survived (Filipova 2005, 2).
A flag of this design as reconstructed byTrajchev flew in the yard of the church of St. Peter and Paul on Petroven (St. Peter’s Day) in Tresonche on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the construction of the church in 1995. This flag will be discussed later.
In addition to this most famous flag, other Mijak flags exist, with some similarities but also enough differences to classify them as another type. Two are held in the Museum of Macedonia in Skopje and one is kept by the Pandilov family in Australia. All are made of white fabric and have a circular element in the middle, surrounded by other elements along the sides and diagonals.
In the middle is a rosette of eight separate segments, the four central ones are made of patterned yellow-white fabric, and the diagonal ones are made of alternating red and light blue fabric. In the center is another small rosette of dark cloth. Small images in dark fabric appear in the four corners of the flag: in the corners of the free part are two horsemen combatant, in the upper hoist part a motif reminiscent of a flower or the sun, and in the lower hoist corner an image that can be interpreted as the crescent and star. The flag ends with three separate white streamers. The sleeve is white.
Photos from Mijak weddings showing at least three more Mijak flags have been preserved. Because the flags are hanging on a staff, it is not possible to see the entire field. They are therefore not considered in this analysis, but from the visible parts it can be concluded with certainty that two also have central rosettes with crosses above and below them, and the third has a cross without a rosette in the center. Two clearly have three streamers while the other’s streamers can not be determined from the photo.
The second flag is gonfanon but raised on a staff, again with three panels. On the first is an angel and a circular motif, on the second a cross, and the third, although obscured, appears to repeats the first. A flag of a different type, originally from the village of Ranci, Kajljari, is held in the Museum of Macedonia, donated by Angele Bojarovski of Tetovo (Fig. 12).
It is a red cotton fabric embroidered on one side with white and yellow beads, 71 x 65 cm. Two white lions are in the middle. Above the lions’ heads are two large yellow crowns. The composition is framed by a white floral frame; in the corners are the same lions, but on a smaller scale. Below the lower paws of the two large lions are the letters “V” and “A”, and below the lions are “19” and “03”. The flag is edged on all sides with red ribbon 5 cm wide, on the back of which are black loops of thread to hang it on a wall. Since the entire composition is closer to the edge of the left side, it is assumed that the sleeve of the flag was there (Нинчовска 2009, 21–30).
The presence of the lion and the year 1903 led researchers to consider it an Ilinden Uprising flag. But according to the available data, such flags existed in the period before the Ilinden Uprising. The National History Museum in Bucharest has an flag identical in composition and construction method, but the year is 1884 and the letters are Cyrillic: “A” and “S” (Fig. 13) (Tiron 2016).
That is why we think that it is probably a ritual (wedding) flag, and not a revolutionary flag.
Today, the state flag almost always serves in the role of the wedding flag. But there are also new trends in the use of the wedding flag. One was used at the 2019 wedding celebration of a couple named Nikola and Renata in the courtyard of the House of the Mijaks restaurant—below the monastery of St. Jovan Bigorski. Apart from a few photos, there is no information about the flag (Величенствена свадба 2019). The flag corresponds to the typography of the flags from Porechе (Fig. 14).
SYMBOLISM
The symbols used on the actual flags (from a museum or photograph) are the cross; the astral—rosette (sun) and the crescent and star; and the anthropomorphic—man, foot, hand, horseman, angel; and animals—lion, wolf.
Due to the constant reinterpretation of the symbols in each generation within a sociocultural space, the interpretation of those symbols should always be taken in the sociocultural and historical context, if possible, or as close as possible. In the absence of authentic interpretation of the symbols, here we will give interpretations from the wider Macedonian area.
The cross is one of the basic symbols, a combination of a horizontal and a vertical line, which is used by almost all cultures, and in some of its forms it is a solar symbol. In the 4th century it became a symbol of the redemptive death of Jesus Christ and thus of Christianity. Its soteriological meaning is the empty cross of the risen Lord. It is used as a relic and magic symbol that protects against evil. But it is also an identity symbol. From the wealth of symbolism, it connects the material and the spiritual (Велковски 2013, 21). The cross appears in many forms and shapes, but they probably do not have the identity role as in the western world. The most common on these flags are the thin straight cross and the Bezant cross (Jonovski 2012, 28).
The circle is a universal symbol rich in meaning. In ancient societies, the circle is one of the basic symbols of the world—the cosmos but also the earth. It is a symbol of the Sun and the sky, of the celestial—the solar and lunar circle. The apotropaic symbolism of the circle is also manifested through circular objects and images—the circular motifs in various variants: a circle with a central point, a circle with a cross in the center, and a rosette (Пиличкова 2013, 61).
The crescent and star is a very old symbol. The moon with its phases is a symbol of change. The crescent (the young or new moon) is a symbol of a new beginning, a new development. Its influence on the country is related to agriculture and thus is a symbol of fertility (Вражиновски 2015, 86). The new moon is a symbol of virginity, so the moon with a star is a symbol of the Mother of God. It appears on the Illyrian coat of arms on Roman coins. It can also be associated with the Bogomil sect, and often represented their members on tombstones. It is also present on city coats of arms, often together with the sun.
The cult of the wolf was closely associated with the cult of the underworld and the moon. A violent, untamable being who leads the souls of the dead to the end of the world, he is the embodiment of demonic forces, but also their subjugator. (Вражиновски 2015, 128).
Human figures and parts of the human body (e.g., foot or arm) are probably symbols of fertility. Angels are God’s messengers on earth but also protectors of humen.
MAKING AND DECORATING FLAGS
Wedding flags were displayed only during big family celebrations and always during the weddings. There is no record that they were ever flown on other occasions, such as religious services or military events. The wedding flag of the Mijaks has a great significance. Weddings did not start without the flag being “decorated” (arranged). During the decorating of the flag, appropriate songs were sung. One of those ritual wedding songs is:
MY AUTUMN ASH TREE HAS GROWN
My autumn ash tree has grown.
Those were not autumn ash trees,
Those were three friends:
the first is the tailor in the room,
the second is carpenter,
the third is young goldsmith.
He who was the tailor in the room to sew the cross bayrak;
He who was the carpenter to make a staff for the flag;
He who was a young goldsmith to make the cross of the flag.
(Ястребова 1886, 425)
Through the verses of this song, and having no other significant sources, we learn that the flags were made by masters in the following three trades: tailor, carpenter, and goldsmith. The tailor sewed the fabric of the flag. According to wellknown Mijak family flags, it can be concluded that they were made of “a material called linen”. Linen is difficult to handle, so it should soak in water for 21 days before starting to work with it. According to Blazevski, the women from the Mijak region made and embroidered the flag (Блажевски 2006). For processing and for any further application of the elements of the textile material itself, only the tailors were capable and qualified with a master’s knowledge and working tools. Then the carpenter made the staff for the flag, which was painted by turning the colors around the wood itself. The task of the carpenter was to determine the length of the staff or the sorok (meaning with hand- in Malorekanski dialect). The goldsmith knew the secrets of making jewelry and ornaments from metal and because of that he was obliged to make the cross on the tip of the staff, which was usually silver or just another metal coated with silver.
After decorating the flag, and firing three bullets from a rifle—three tufecs (signs), the flag was placed in the groom’s house by singing a song appropriate to this custom as well (Мажовски 1922, 19):
What is the noise in the hero’s yards,
high flags rose, over wide and high verandas,
whether a hero to war will go,
or get ready to take a girl ...
As soon as the flag was decorated and placed in a conspicuous place, the wedding could begin on the balcony of the groom’s house. The wedding flag was decorated with basil (or other flowers), an apple, and a handkerchief. The bayraktar (flag bearer) was in charge of the flag during the wedding. The bayraktar rode on horseback at the head of the wedding procession with the flag, when going for the bride and when going to the church for the wedding. The custom of decorating the flag can still be seen today during the cultural event called the Galichnik Wedding. During the annual event today, the family “cross flag” is replaced with the Macedonian state flag.
The Mijak flags are known as “cross flags” due to the representation of a cross atop the staff. While we do not always see a representation of a cross on the flag itself (on the fabric), a cross always forms the finial of the flagstaff, decorated according to the folk wedding beliefs.
The weddings were held one week before a holiday: St. Peter’s Day, Ilinden (St. Elijah Day), the Mother of God Day, the Transfiguration Day, depending on the village slava (holiday). Two days before the beginning of the wedding, before the evening walk “to get water”, the flag is decorated or, as the old saying goes, “the flag is arranged”. The wedding flag is decorated with a cross on top of the staff, flowers, and an apple with four old coins pressed halfway into the apple, so as to be seen. Two days before the wedding, a young girl, who has a living mother and father, visits gardens to pick three flowers from three yards: rose, calendula, and basil. A wreath is made from the flowers, which together with the cross is tied to the staff of the flag. During the decoration of the flag, appropriate songs are sung, accompanied by a musical performance of the same songs, always played on zurli and drums. The decorated flag is then placed in a place visible from the groom’s house to be seen by everyone, after which a rifle is fired three times (Гиневска 2020). The flag bearer is in charge of the flag throughout the wedding, and leads each wedding procession on horseback with the flag.
THE "ALL-MIJAKS FLAG" PHENOMENON
Each generation gives the relationship to the symbol new meanings and importance. That relationship and meaning is created under the influence of socio-economic-political relations. During the early 1990s, Macedonia took its first steps as an independent state, for which it was symbolically unprepared. Its national flag was chosen in a 1992 competition, then it had to be changed only three years later. This led people to return to the “ancient” symbols as symbols of group identity (Јоновски 2019, 31).
A reconstruction of the wedding flag drawn by Trajchev was first displayed in 1995 in Tresonche on the 150th anniversary of the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul. The flag is red on a white field and has been promoted as an all-Mijaks symbol, as a tribal identity flag. This follows from the understanding of the term “flag” as a parallel with the state flag, as an identity symbol of a wider community, completely forgetting the primary role of a pure wedding flag (Fig. 15).
After 1995, nearly all the settlements in Mala Reka began to display this flag in the yards of their churches during the village celebrations. The development of this flag and its promotion as an eternal flag of all Mijak tribes is interesting to follow from a vexillographic perspective. Since its initial appearance, this flag has been modified in three respects (Fig. 16).
The first change to the original Trajchev design is in the wingless double-headed eagle, whose interior was originally shown bearing a cross with four fire steels. The inside (cross and firesteels) of the double-headed eagle is filled with red. In the modern context, the symbol of the cross with four fire steels is perceived as a purely Serbian national symbol. The second change adds a third color, yellow, in addition to the basic white and red, to fill in some white elements in the flag. The use of yellow brings the family flag closer to the colors of the state flag of Macedonia. This flag was only introduced as the sole Mijak symbol in 1995, not before. The availability of Trajchev’s book probably made this flag popular. But the second version of Trajchev’s flag should not be called a Mijak-collective flag because Mijaks are no longer living permanently on their territory. Or it is just an ordinary flag that flies in a part of a municipality where the Mijaks lived continuously until 1970.
In his description, Mazhovski writes that the Reka villages used flags (plural) and does not mention a cross as a symbol on those flags. The cross as a central symbol does not appear on most of the previously known Mijak wedding flags. On the other hand, Mazoski lists some interesting symbols, the bear and the hand, which we do not find on the previous flags.
Trajchev did not mention that the flag he presented was just one of many family/tribe flags preserved to this day. Did he not know about others, or was his goal to present only the flag bearing a lion, in response to Stamatov? The conclusion and the parallel presented by Filipova regarding the age and the unique character of the flag that she describes in her article are disputable (Filipova 2005). The fermans (decrees) she describes do not mention a flag, a certain tribe, or any prohibition of use. The decrees refer to other rights and obligations for the settlements of the Reka area. This is also found in Filipova and is supported by Petar Popovski, who in turn bases his views on older incomplete works “in relation to the flags and the problem of the socalled all-Mijak flag and the parallel made with historical figures and events from the 15th century to today” ( Поповски 2009; 2018).
Today Popovski (Поповски 2005, Поповски 2006), and Brkovski (Брковски 2009) are leading an effort to construct a myth about the history, social, and cultural characteristics of the Mijaks. Trajchev’s statements that the Mijaks are of boyararistocratic origin are quoted most often, drawing a response from Mojso Popovski (Поповски 2018). In that myth, an all-Mijaks ethnic identity symbol plays a huge role. That role is attributed to the flag described by Trajchev or its second reconstruction.
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