On Sunday 30th of November 2014 a forty first instalment of our traditional annual Slovak Day was held at the Colo River. In a spirit of  many of its previous years this has also been quite a memorable one in its own right. By a storm! And a good one.

Initially warm and very pleasant weather has attracted a really good attendance, where we’ve welcome four generations of our countrymen, which resulted in a stimulating athmosphere. Many young slovak families made the trip on Saturday and have excitedly enjoyed beatiful surroundings of the Polish field camp, Bielany. Children in particural have marvelled in many exciting activities, like swingging above the water or swimming in the Colo River.

Our preparations for this Slovak Day event have run smoothly by a contribution of many hands in the process. After the field holy mass, celebrated by f. Henry Adler SVD, the Slovak Day festivities have begun with our traditional gourment meals and continued with a very enjoyable traditional folklore dancing and singing entertainment performed byour youth.

Ján Longauer, on behalf of the Community, has greeted all the gathered guests and  exteded a warm welcome to Dr. Igor Bartho, Slovak Ambassador to Australia and Honorary Consul of SR Ing. Milan Neklapil and their spouses. Ján then praised many older as well as younger slovak familities and individuals for their selfless contribution to the Slovak Day preparations.

Then by a minute of silence we have honoured our beloved late f. Viktor Števko SVD.

After the Slovak anthem, Ján Longauer has presented the Life long contribution awards to Boris Gašpar, Ivan Hupka a Ivan Král and thanked them individually for their hard work and commitment to the Slovak Catholic Community in Sydney.

Children’s folk ensemble Stonožka, dressed in the original folk costumes from the regions of Central and Eastern Slovakia, has then taken over with their traditional folklore dancing and singing entertainment numbers, which have been choreographed and managed by Ivanka Pašovičová.

Afterwards the heavens had opened and the mighty storm started to rage. There was so much rain that even the oversized stormwater drains couldn’t cope with that amount of stormwater. And when the power got blacked out it was time to go home for many guests. But the hardy guests who had stayed at Bielany throughout an hour long storm have continued to party after the storm has cleared.

In this space we would also like to express our gratitude to Úrad pre Slovákov žijúcich v zahraničí (Office for Slovaks living in overseas) for their financial grant supporting the preparations and propagation of this beautiful event.

One more Thank you to all of our dear volunteers for making our Slovak Day such a special event and to our numerous guests who have shared this great experience with us.

We already look forward to celebrating the 42^nd instalment of the Slovak Day with all of you at Bielany on the Colo River next November.