Church takes on aspic aficionados in northern Serbia

A festival showcasing aspic dishes traditionally held in Rumenka near Novi Sad has been postponed after a warning issued by the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC).

Bishop of Backa Irinej "threatened that organizers would be anathematized by the Church, and have death bells toll for them," Belgrade-based daily Blic writes, if they went ahead and held this "pagan gathering" during Great (Easter) Lent, when Orthodox believers abstain from eating meat and other animal products.