THE LIFE AND WORK OF THE DONOR ATANAS BLIZNAKOV IN THE MONOGRAPHS OF SLAVE KATIN
One winter during Epiphany a huge number of migrant workers from America, Canada and Australia came to D’mbeni. The snow was up to people’s knees, but the weather was unusually warm and mild for that time of year. A group of men sitting in front of the church, not far from the puddle, were cheerful and jovial; enjoying some D’mbeni brandy.
“I am going to give a barrel of wine,” Vanco Bliznakov said loudly, “to anyone who will cross this puddle dressed in their suit .”
Those present started to laugh and make jokes but then Petre Angelkov raised his hand and shouted very loudly so that everybody could hear:
“Give me your hand, Vanco, if you are a real man, I give my word and it is my bet that I am going to go across this puddle. Let some of these men confirm this bet.”
Then Vanco gave his word making their bet valid.
At that moment, Petre Angelkov jumped in the puddle wearing his suit and necktie and went across the puddle singing and shouting. When he got out of the puddle he was completely wet but he was shouting as loudly as he could, “Come on, bring that barrel of wine here and let us all drink; let this be known and remembered. Let the priest throw the cross and let the one who is going to catch it have great happiness.”
Indeed Vanco Bliznakov rolled the barrel of wine and people started to drink the Bliznakov’s wine in delight. The women brought smoked pork and sausages, pickle brine, pickle relish, and other foods.
That is how the party in D’mbeni ended in 1930; the party that would be remembered by many generations.
People from Dmbeni
Atanas Ivan Bliznakov was born on December 15, 1901 in the village D’mbeni, Kostur Region. According to the words of his mother, he was registered by a village priest in the church books on the day he was baptized at St. Nicholas church in the middle of February 1902. Unfortunately, all data about this act was destroyed and there is no trace of the church register books.
However, this administrative error allowed him not to be enrolled in the Greek army before the Turkish-Greek war, since in 1919, according to church administration, Atanas was 17, and only those young men who were 18 years old in that year were recruited and called to serve their mandatory military service.
During the Ilinden Uprising, Atanas was a very little boy. At that time, the Turkish army invaded the village, and his mother Doca took him in her arms to the mountains where many villagers found a hiding place and deliverance. In those turbulent times, his father Ivan, along with other men from the village, joined the insurgent detachments that fought against Ottoman slavery for the freedom of the beleaguered people and his enslaved motherland – Macedonia.
Atanas was given his name during the Christian ceremony of baptism, but he was nicknamed Naso. His mother used to call him Naso and her example was followed by Slavka, his wife, as well as their close relatives and friends while others called him Atanas and sometimes even Tanas. In the U.S., where Macedonians used to formally change their names for Anglo-Saxon names, he was called Tommy. Many addressed him as ‘Uncle Atanas’.
There were three churches in D’mbeni and St. Nicholas in the Kamensko neighborhood still exists. The church that used to be in the Kladensko neighborhood was named St. Demetrius. The third church, St. Petka Monastery, was located outside the village in the place where the settlement with the same name existed before.
To be continued
By SLAVE KATIN
