Nikola Tesla would have celebrated Christmas on January 7th.

Nikola Tesla's
father, Milutin Tesla, was a Serbian Orthodox priest.
Osborn Spencer
Nikola Tesla: …
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Violeta Zaric
toSSaJaninuaSprySSo sns6,c oalc20dSr17eds  · 
Nikola Tesla would have celebrated Christmas on January 7th. Nikola Tesla's
father, Milutin Tesla, was a Serbian Orthodox priest.
Osborn Spencer
Nikola Tesla: Tesla talks of Christmas: Famous Electrician’s
Narrowest Escape From Death – The Christmas Dinner – A Land of Mighty
Snows, The Anaconda Standard, Anaconda, Vol. IX, No. 107 (Sunday, December
19, 1897), 23.
Nikola Tesla: Tesla talks of Xmas: Famous Electrician’s
Narrowest Escape From Death, Bacheller Syndicate, The Herald, Los Anglese,
Year Twenty – Fifth, No. 87 (Sunday, December 26, 1897), 37.
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Tesla talks of Xmas

Famous Electrician’s Narrowest Escape from Death
Nikola Tesla doesn’t often speak of length about himself or his wonderful
electrical inventions, but he sat and talked for an hour or two the other day with a
friend about Christmas in the province of Lika, which is a part of the Austro-
Hungarian empire and lies close to the Adriatic sea, near Herzigovina, Dalmatia
and Bosinna. Tesla passed much of his boyhood in Smiljan, a town of Lika, where
his father was pastor of a Greek church, but went from there while yet only a boy.
“Christmas festivities in my country”, said Mr. Tesla, differ much from Christmas
festivities here; yet there are many similarities, too. We begin the celebration on
the day before Christmas, by fasting. We do not altogether abstain, being
privileged to eat freely of fish and all vegetable foods, but we may partake of no
flesh meats, nor milk, nor eggs. This day is devoted largely to reflection, and its
observance lasts until late on Christmas eve.
We rise very early in my country on Christmas morning - as early as three o’clock
at latest – to go to church and hear mass. All the morning until eleven o’clock is
given over to religious services of noe sort or another, and but little if any food is
taken until that hour. By that time, however, every one is hungry and a liberal
luncheon is eaten, no discrimination being made against the heartiest food. Every
one in my country is fond of coffee, which is generally drunk in large cups with
cream or milk. We may drink coffee on the day before Christmas, but without milk
only, and as we are allowed to resume the use of milk in coffee on the day itself,
you may be sure we then indulge freely in the delicious drink. After this breakfast,
the gentlemen are served with liquors and little cakes.”
The Christmas Dinner
“The Christmas dinner comes later in the day, and I assure you it is always a meal
to remember. No, we do not serve turkey there as the chief dish, and I am not sure
that I can name any dish that may properly be said to take the turkey’s place, -
unless it be roasted pig.”
“I do not remember a Christmas dinner without a roasted pig in my country. The
pig selected is always very young and small, and is roasted entire after dressing,
the cooking being attended to with great care and prolonged until the skin is crisp
and crackling. Besides the Christmas pig there are many other dishes served on the
great Christmas festival – all the good things, in fact, that can be devised, the same
as in America; and every one eats us heartily as possible, - another point in which
the people of my country and Americans are alike.”
“There is always a Christmas tree wherever there are children in my country, and
the good house-mothers and fathers prepare and decorate them with much loving
care, to the great delight of the little ones. There are always present a-plenty on the

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trees, of course; but, even so, gift giving is not much a feature of the holiday-time
here as there.”
The stockings are not hung up on Christmas eve, as here, in my country, but on St.
Nicholas Day, which falls some day earlier that Christmas. In America the festival
of St. Nicholas, or Santa Claus, and Christmas seem to be combined, but there they
are kept separate, and the children have two days of holiday rejoicing and frolic in
place of one.”
“As a matter of fact, they have more than that, since the observance of Christmas
itself lasts two or three days after the day itself, during all which time the greatest
jollity prevails, and family reunions are held. There is much visiting back and
forth, and seasonable greetings fill the air.”
“But sometimes,” continued electrician musingly, as if thinking of other days, “the
reunions are not held, and the visiting exists in the wishes of the people only. That
is when the deep snows come.”
From the book:
Milovan Matic
“Serbian Protopresbyter Milutin Tesla (1819-1879) Nikola Tesla’s Father

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