Croatians from America organise fešta on Mljet to celebrate Victory & Homeland Thanksgiving Day

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Croatia is today celebrating the 27th anniversary of Victory & Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Day of Croatian Defenders.

The day commemorates the military victory on 5 August 1995, known as Operation Storm, when the Croatian army took over a self-proclaimed Serb entity in Croatia.

Operation Storm was a combined military and police operation that ended a Serb armed insurgency and restored Croatian sovereignty over occupied central and southern parts of the country, paving the way for the peaceful reintegration of eastern Croatia in January 1998.

A host of festivities are being held as Croatians celebrate the occasion and one, which has become a tradition on the island of Mljet, took place again last night. 

Niko Hazdovac and wife Lucija, who with their family run the successful travel agency Adriatic Travel in San Pedro, California, hosts a fešta every year the night before Victory & Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Day of Croatian Defenders in his small hometown of Kozarica on Mljet for his friends and locals.

(Private album)

(Private album)

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“Everyone had a great time with the songs of the Dubrovnik pop artist Ilko Đivanović. With local food, Mljet wine and good music, we danced until late into the night, and celebrated Oljua with fireworks,” Ane Mijecka, another who was born on Mljet and now lives in the US, told us.

(Private album)

(Private album)

(Private album)

Every year the fešta organised by the American expats has a humanitarian aspect and this year a small donation was collected for the restoration of the church in Kozarica.

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