Miravci
Encyclopedia
Gevgelija
Gevgelija is a town with a population of 15,685 located in the very southeast of the Republic of Macedonia along the banks of the Vardar River, situated at the country's main border with Greece , the point which links the motorway from Skopje and three other former Yugoslav capitals with...
region of south-eastern part of the Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
, located in the Kožuf
Kožuf
Kožuf mountain is a mountain situated in the southern part of the Republic of Macedonia and partly in Greece. Its most western parts reach the river Blashnica, and the north-western side stretches in a line, from the Mrzhechko village via the village Konopishte, through the course of Boshava to...
foothills west of the Vardar
Vardar
The Vardar or Axios is the longest and major river in the Republic of Macedonia and also a major river of Greece. It is long, and drains an area of around . The maximum depth of river is ....
River.
Miravci lies on the Skopje
Skopje
Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre...
-Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
railway and a few kilometers from the once-named Highway of Brotherhood and Unity that ran the whole length of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
. It is about 25 kilometers north of the Greek border.
Miravci has at various times in recent decades been its own municipality, or folded into the greater Gevgelija municipality. There are six villages in the Miravci district: Miravci, Davidovo, Petrovo, Gabrovo, Miletkovo and Smokvica. Miravci has a kindergarten and grade school (St. Kliment Ohridski, grades 1-8) that serve students from all six villages. The entire municipality has around 2900 residents.
Miravci has a warm, Mediterranean climate and is known for its tomatoes, peppers and other early-season vegetables. The hills around the region are covered in Quercus coccifera (Kermes oak -- 'prnar' in Macedonian), as well as wild figs and pomegranates.
History
Miravci is a rather old village, although the area has long been inhabited. One of the most famous landmarks is the "White Bridge" located a few kilometers west on the Old River. It is sometimes called the "Roman bridge" although it was most likely built during the Ottoman empireOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
's occupation. Near the bridge an archeological site known as Markovi kuli (Markov's towers) has been excavated. Above the village of Davidovo is a small church known as the monastery St. Ilija (Elijah) -- a prominent local landmark seen from the highway.
Petrovo village is considered the oldest settlement in the district. Many of the villagers were said to have fled from the Turkish army several centuries ago to form an old village called Petrovo (now Agios Petros) in modern-day Greece.
The scrub-covered hills of the district have long lured both hunters and rebels to their cover. Anti-Ottoman komiti bands and later anti-Fascist partisan bands operated there. The Nazi German army burned the villages of Petrovo and nearby Gabrovo in October 1944.
Etymology
There are several tales regarding the origin of the name "Miravci." According to one, the village used to be located higher up in the hills, and was forced to relocate after a particularly bad infestation of insects ("mravi" means "ants" in Macedonian). The village relocated to a more peaceful ("mirno") place.A second tale relates that five brothers: Miro, David, Peter, Gabriel and Mile moved to the area and founded the five villages: Miravci, Davidovo, Petrovo, Gabrovo and Miletkovo.
The Gjura Mara celebration is unique to Miravci. This dance always takes place on the Tuesday after Orthodox Easter. It is a circle dance performed by the older women of the village. Inside the circle a young girl of the village dances with a staff. Around the circle young lads wearing Turkish fez
Fez (clothing)
The fez , or tarboosh is a felt hat either in the shape of a red truncated cone or in the shape of a short cylinder made of kilim fabric. Both usually have tassels...
hats try to break into the circle to get to the girl, who chases them off with a stick. The dance originates in a local tale of a girl Mara who was kidnapped by a Turkish pasha for his harem -- her brother Gjuro made a daring foray to rescue her.
The local dialect is similar to the southeastern Macedonian language
Macedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
dialects of Gevgelija-Strumica
Strumica
Strumica is the largest city in eastern Macedonia, near the Novo Selo-Petrich border crossing with Bulgaria. About 100,000 people live in the region surrounding the city. The city is named after the Strumica River which runs through it...
in general, with some diversions. These dialects differ from standard Macedonian in their use of penultimate and ultimate word stress (compared to the standard dialect's antepenultimate stress) as well as some vocabulary and grammatical differences (such as the use of -h as the past tense verb marker in the first person singular, as opposed to -v in standard dialect.) Word-final vowels are often dropped when the definite-article suffix is added: glava - 'head' --> glav'ta - 'the head.'