Slovenes

Americans of Slovenian descent are holding their biggest annual cultural festival this weekend near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, featuring live polka music, presentations of Slovenian cultural heritage, and a sausage competition.

An exhibition at the National and University Library (NUK) in Ljubljana sheds light to one of the most fascinating historic periods in terms of censorship. Slovenians and Imperial Censorship from Joseph II to the First World War is the result of a multi-year research project.

Disappearing, an award-winning documentary that sheds light on how the Slovenian language and culture have been disappearing from everyday life in Carinthia, Austria, is on show at Ljubljana's Kinodvor Cinema. The director Andrina Mračnikar believes the reason for the disappearing has been systematic discrimination for the past 100 years.

Koper/Portorož – Slovenia observes today the Return of Primorska to the Motherland, a public holiday in memory of the day in 1947 when this western region was reunited with Slovenia after being under Italian rule since the end of WWI.

Basovizza – Addressing a ceremony marking 95 years since the shooting of four Slovenian anti-fascist fighters in Basovizza, Minister for Slovenians Abroad Matej Arčon said that righting of wrongs and harmony was something that was worth fighting for. He said that if united Europe will overcome the unusual challenges it was faced with.

Delnice – More than 300 members of the Slovenian community in Croatia turned out for their 18th annual meeting, organised by the Union of Slovenian Associations in Croatia in the Golubinjak Forest Park near Delnice on Saturday.

Szentgotthard – Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon met the representatives of the Slovenian minority in Hungary as she visited Szentgotthard on Tuesday. The community presented to her topical issues and challenges, while the minister praised their work for the preservation and development of the community, the Foreign Ministry said in a press release.

Novo Mesto – The young generation plays a key role in preserving Slovenian identity in communities living abroad, Minister for Slovenians Abroad Matej Arčon said on Saturday, as he addressed the main event of Welcome Home, the 12th annual get-together of the Slovenian diaspora.

Klagenfurt – The Slovenian minority in the Austrian state of Carinthia is hosting this year’s Europeada, a football championship of minority groups held under the auspices of the Federal Union of European Nationalities.

Gorizia – President Borut Pahor addressed a ceremony ahead of Primož Trubar Day in Italy’s Savogna on Tuesday, noting the importance of the Slovenian language for the Slovenian nation, saying that the “Slovenian language was and will be the foundation of our identity.”