The Serbian Embassy in Korea marked the country’s founding as a modern nation in a reception with foreign envoys, members of the Serbian community in Korea and government officials at Seoul Millennium Hilton Hotel on Feb. 18.

“Following disintegration of the wider south Slavic state of Yugoslavia, in which Serbia had invested its previous statehood and for which it had given its great human and material sacrifices, independent Serbia was faced with a difficult task to choose a date for its National Day,” said Serbian Ambassador to Korea Slobodan Marinkovic in a speech during the reception.

“We chose Feb. 15, popularly known as ‘Sretenje,’ because it was the date when two major historic events for Serbs took place,” he said.

The Serbian word “sretenje” refers to the Orthodox Christian holiday of Candlemas, or the presentation of Jesus at the Temple. The First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Turks took place on this day, Feb. 15, 1804. The uprising is widely regarded as the beginning of Serbia as an independent nation, though it did not get broader European recognition of this fact until late in the19th century.

Serbia also promulgated its first national constitution on this same date in 1835.

“It was an expression of Serbia’s determination to build a society that recognizes the highest achievements of civilization,” Marinkovic said about his nation’s first constitution.

After years of civil war and conflict with its neighbors in the 1990s, Serbia is now becoming re-integrated into the wider European community and is solidifying democratic institutions. Serbia officially applied for the European Union membership in December 2009 and became an official candidate in March 2012.

Korea and Serbia established diplomatic relations in December 1989.

By Philip Iglauer (ephilip2011@heraldcorp.com)