Local News

Serbian Fest picnickers relish in family, food

WEIRTON -- Attendees relished in family and food at the 2024 Serbian Festival Saturday in the newly remodeled Serbian Picnic Grounds pavilion.

Hosted by Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Church in Steubenville, the picnic was filled with music, chatter and homemade dishes, celebrating Serbian heritage and family ties. Ongoing for close to 70 years, the yearly picnic is the church's biggest fundraiser, according to the event's chairperson, Frances Wasko.

"It first started out as a picnic for the people from the parish," Wasko said, noting the local influx of Serbian immigrants in the early 1900s due to employment opportunities in the coal mines and steel mills. A Serbian church first existed in Mingo Junction, but Holy Resurrection was consecrated in 1948, said Wasko, who's been coming to the church's picnic since the mid-1900s.

The event has since been opened up to the community at large, but it plays an enormous role for many families, which use the picnic for their reunions. A number of families became separated after the steel mills and mines closed, Wasko said, but families still come from all over to reunite at the picnic.

Food was a main staple at the picnic, with the Serbian Men's Club preparing wood-roasted lamb and chicken. The church's pastor and others prepared ćevapi, or grilled sausages made with a mixture of veal, pork, lamb and various spices.

Parish women made baked goods and other foods including cabbage rolls and cabbage and noodles. Additional foods included pierogis, hot dogs and pizza, Wasko said, adding, "We try to make it for everybody."

Wasko said, "What sets us off from everybody else -- obviously I'm partial -- but the Serbs make the best lamb, and also we treat you like family. You come here, it's like being with family. It's just not commercialized."

Prices for the food remained the same as last year's prices, Wasko said, noting how that's possible because of the many donations Holy Resurrection was "blessed" to receive.

John Martich, a life-long member of Holy Resurrection, has been coming to the picnic his whole life, and his grandfather helped with cleanup after the picnics in the 1960s.

Martich said around 1,000 people were expected to attend the picnic, so the church prepared 25 roasted lambs, 250 roasted chickens and 2,500 ćevapi.

The food is "the best," Martich said, but his favorite aspect of the picnic has to be "seeing people that I grew up with who have since moved away for mostly economic reasons because of the mill situation. Reconnecting with them is just my favorite."

This year's picnic was blessed with great weather, following last year's nasty storm, Martich said. The church was also blessed to be celebrating in the picnic grounds' pavilion, which recently underwent a remodel worth more than $100,000, including a new roof and electrical work done by local contractor Cottrill and Son Construction LLC.

Located at 30 Serbian Way, the grounds itself is owned by Holy Resurrection and maintained by the men's club, said Martich, who is a member of the club. Every Wednesday between Memorial Day and Labor Day, the men's club is barbecuing chickens to sell, with proceeds benefiting the grounds' beatification projects.

"Our men's club takes a personal interest in this place," Martich said. "It's not unusual to come down here when there's no event going on and see a couple of guys just sitting around, talking, just enjoying."

Currently, the club has no other big projects in the works for grounds, which Martich said are occasionally rented out for other functions. Right now, the focus is on keeping everything maintained.

Martich's grandfather emigrated to the U.S. before Worold War I. Most Serbian families came in the 1910s or 1920s, following the Balkan Wars, he said. Recently, the church was been gaining new members who followed the pastor from his last church in Pittsburgh.

The Rev. Rajko Kosic, who is nearing his fourth year as Holy Resurrection's pastor, noted that a lot of preparation goes into the picnic, both long in advance and days before.

"It takes a lot of people to work, to be organized. We are lucky and blessed. We do have a nice group of people, very organized, and everybody's helping everybody."

The church is "really united," he said, adding that a lot of younger families with kids have joined.

Kosic said his favorite meal at the picnic was the ćevapi he helped prepare, but every dish is good because it's all homemade.

Kosic said of the picnic: "My favorite thing is to see people being so happy and enjoying, having a good time. We all have a good time. ... God blessed us here with beautiful, beautiful weather. It couldn't be any better. It's a true blessing."

Among those using the picnic for their family reunion was the Yazevac family. One family member, Sally Wilson, grew up near Burgettstown as one of 14 children to Mildred Yazevac.

Wilson recalled how the family would get together and bring her mother to the picnic. When she died, the family separated for a time but has now been coming back each year for a reunion over the last 20 years.

The youngest of her siblings, Wilson is now the only living one, but she was surrounded Saturday by nieces, nephews and their families -- united by their Serbian heritage. Wilson said it's "wonderful" to be able to reunite everyone each year at the picnic.

Serbian songs played over loudspeakers, and at the bar, attendees could hear folk songs performed by the Radost tamburitza band. Listeners could take money, tear a hole in it and place it on a tuning peg of one of the performers' instrument, after which they could request a song.

At the bar itself, attendees could get a taste of Slivovitz, or Serbian plum brandy. One of the bar's patrons, Mark Zatezalo, called the picnic his "favorite place in the whole world."

Zatezalo noted how his father and his friends -- who returned from World War II -- built the grounds, which were officially founded in 1949. Each of those individuals was a great man and treated him well, Zatezalo recalled.

"I think of everybody who came before me, and it's nice that (the picnic) still continues. ... All the World War II folks, they'd be happy."