Stomorina

16.08.2020.

Stomorina, or Vela Gospoja, is a holiday celebrating the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 15, to which the parish church in Omišalj is also dedicated.

Stomorina or Vela Gospoja, as she is also called in Omišlja, is a holiday celebrating the Assumption on August 15Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom the Omisalj parish church is dedicated. The day before the feast, a stomorina is made in the church above the big altar: bunches, figs and pears, i.e. the first fruits, are tied to a metal ring which is thus displayed in honor of the Mother of God ('Sta Maria - Stomorina). Stomorina itself as a folk festival is held on the16. August on the holiday of Rokova.

Young men and women, in the past, would have done their homework on Placi, of several hoops connected to a bandiri (stick) with a crown with four points on which apples or oranges are impaled , and silk facoli are attached to the hoops (in the past they were collected from houses by women and girls who were given them by their sailor fathers and husbands who bought them in Venice and other places where they sailed).

Bandira was made anew by women every year for three different occasions: they are identical for koledva and veli pir, while it is different for stomorina. On the night before the holiday, the boys would silently raise it on the Square using ropes stretched in a cross and tied on the roofs, while the girls would help tie additional torches and fruit to the ropes. Bandira depicts the Mother of God, Maria or Stomorina, flying into the sky with angels (facoli). The young men guard Stomorina and used to take it away if a storm was brewing and then set it up again. Stomorina hung for two days, on Vela Gospoja and on Rokova, and that second day she was hiding under Stomorina. The custom has been preserved to this day, with the fact that a ready-made bandira is used in which young people participate, and together with the Rokovo festival, it takes on the expression of a tourist attraction because many sports and entertainment activities are organized for several days before the holiday.

 

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