Enjoy Croatian hospitality

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This article was published 28/07/2015 (3706 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As a child, Danica Brnjas spent her summers in her parents’ homeland of Croatia.

As an adult, travelling to Southeast Europe ever year isn’t as easy, so she brings Croatia to Canada.

The 25-year-old is the adult ambassador of the Croatian Pavilion “Zagreb” at Folklorama. The celebration, named after Croatia’s capital city, runs Aug. 2 to 8 at West Kildonan Collegiate (101 Ridgecrest Ave.).

Brnjas started participating in the Croatian pavilion as a dancer at age five. This year marks her fifth as an ambassador.  

“I don’t have the opportunity to travel back to Croatia as much as possible anymore. It’s not super close so it’s not somewhere you can go for a week,” Brnjas said at the Folklorama launch event at RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg on July 23.

“The Croatian pavilion gives me that piece of history and culture that I need, that I thrive for, and it brings me a lot closer to my friends and family that are all from there. My grandparents are also from Croatia. They live here now, but they don’t speak any English, so this helps me to refresh my Croatian every year and make sure I can still communicate with them. It keeps me in touch with my culture.”

For good eats, the Croatian pavilion offers cevapcici (ground mixed meat rolls) and ražnjici (seasoned pork kabobs). For cool treats, there’s a selection of Croatian beers, wines and soda, as well as a plethora of pastries to satisfy sweet teeth.

“We have our Cedevita, which is an orange tart pop, and we also have breskvice, translation, little peach cookies. They have rum inside them and they’re really delicious,” Brnjas said.

Brnjas said the Croatian community in Winnipeg is composed of approximately 500 families and is based out of St. Nicholas Tavelich Church (2688 Main St.).

Despite being a relatively small community, Brnjas said the city’s Croatians are very active.

“The church offers Croatian cataclysm and Croatian speaking school,” she said. “We have our dance group (Croatian Dawn), which I would say with all four age groups totals 150 to 200 people. We have our orchestra. We even have our own soccer field and picnic grounds in St. Andrews. We’re active and we like to keep together. We are a small community so we have to stay tight-knit.”

As united as the Croatian community is, Brnjas said the character of Croatians is to be warm and welcoming to all cultures.

“We’re extremely friendly and gracious. Even if we don’t know your name we’ll give you the shirt off our back,” Brnjas said. “You’ll notice that at the pavilion. Everyone from security to the people in the kitchen are willing to help and give everything they can to make sure you enjoy your time.”

For dinner reservations to the Croatian Pavilion, call 204-797-3201 or email carla@c2customfurnishings.com

The 46th annual Folklorama festival features 43 pavilions and runs from Aug. 2 to 15. For more information, go to www.folklorama.ca