Slavi

A celebration of Slavi, or the Russian Orthodox Christmas, in Alaska, c. 1957–1960[n 1]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈslɒviː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈslɑvi/
• Hyphenation: Sla‧vi

From Russian сла́вы (slávy, “praises”), plural of сла́ва (sláva, “glory”), from Proto-Slavic *slàva (“fame; glory”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”).

Slavi

1. The Russian Orthodox Christmas, which is celebrated from January 6 through 13 in outstate Alaska, USA, wherever there is a sizable Russian Orthodox population.

   Synonym: Slaviq

   • 1983, Cooking Alaskan, Anchorage, Ak.: Alaska Northwest Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 80:

     Following are three recipes for the large size pie – piroghi – one a very large size pie which the cook, Marlene Johnson of Naknek, says is excellent for "Slavi time."

   • 1986 June, “Affected Environment”, in Togiak National Wildlife Refuge: Final Comprehensive Conservation Plan, Wildnerness Review, and Environmental Impact Statement, Anchorage, Ak.: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Region 7, United States Department of the Interior, OCLC 14122914, page 96:

     Church functions such as the Moravian Song Fests and the Russian Orthodox Christmas ("Slavi") provide opportunities for social gatherings and visiting among residents of the communities.

   • 2016 January 8, Hannah Colton, “Nushagak Villages Celebrate Orthodox Christmas”, in KDLG: Public Radio for Alaska’s Bristol Bay‎, archived from the original on 17 February 2016:

     Thousands of Alaskans joined believers around the world this week in celebrating Russian Orthodox Christmas. The ‘Slavi’ celebration follows the old Julian calendar, with Christmas Day on January 7. Festivities last several days as church groups visit relatives and friends, singing traditional carols and enjoying plates of food at each stop.

From Latin Sclavī, plural of Late Latin and Medieval Latin Sclavus (“a Slav”).

Slavi

1. (archaic) plural of Slav.
   • 1773, J. R. Forster, “Notes on the First Chapter of the First Book of Ælfred’s Anglo-Saxon Version of Orosius”, in Orosius; [translation wrongly attributed to Alfred the Great], The Anglo-Saxon Version, from the Historian Orosius. [...] Together with an English Translation from the Anglo-Saxon, London: Printed by W[illiam] Bowyer and J[ohn] Nichols. [...], OCLC 833847954, page 251:

     The tribes of the Slavi were diſtinguiſhed by peculiar names; thus we have the Slavi Marahani, Slavi Sorbi, Slavi Behemani, Slavi Dalemincii, Slavi Carentani, Slavi Polaci or Poloni, Slavi Chorvati, Slavi Roffi, &c. A great many of theſe are taken from rivers, and parts of the country they inhabited.

   • 1829, [Conrad] Malte-Brun, “Book XCVI. Europe.—Introduction.”, in Universal Geography, or A Description of All Parts of the World, […], volume IV (Containing the Theory, or Mathematical, Physical, and Political Principles, or Geography), Philadelphia, Pa.: John Laval and S. F. Bradford, OCLC 30696233, page 46:

     Two great races have probably existed in the north-east of Europe for some thousand years. The vain Greeks and proud Romans despised the obscure names of Slavonians and Finns, (Slavi and Finni;) but these populous tribes have occupied from the earliest dawn of history all the countries comprehended under the vague and chimerical names of Scythia and Sarmatia. […] The Slavonic nations are divided, according to their dialects, into three branches: first, the eastern Slavi including the Russians, […] secondly the western Slavi or the Poles, Bohemians, Hungarian Slavi, and the Sorabs or Serbs of Lusatia; thirdly, the northern Slavi or the Venedes of the Romans, […]

   • 1850, Talvi [pseudonym; Therese Albertine Luise von Jakob Robinson], “Historical Sketch. Introduction.”, in Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic Nations; with a Sketch of Their Popular Poetry, New York, N.Y.: George P[almer] Putnam, […], page 2:

     [T]hey appear frequently in the accounts of the Byzantine historians, under the different appellations of the Slavi, Sarmatæ, Antæ, Vandales, Veneti, and Vendes, mostly as involved in the wars of the two Roman empires, sometimes as allies, sometimes as conquerors; […]

   • 1862, “SLAVI”, in George Ripley and Charles A[nderson] Dana, editors, The New American Cyclopædia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge, volume XIV (Reed–Spire), New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton and Company, […]; Boston, Mass.: Elliot and White, OCLC 3357620, page 716, column 1:

     Early Roman writers refer to the Slavi under the names of the Venedi (Vindes) and the Servians, both of which still designate branches of the race.

   • 2011, Ĺudovít Haraksim, “Slovak Slavism and Panslavism”, in Mikuláš Teich, Dušan Kováč, and Martin D. Brown, editors, Slovakia in History, Cambridge; New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 103:

     As known, the Slovaks found themselves part of the Kingdom of Hungary after the disintegration of the Great Moravian Empire around AD 905. Within Hungary, they were designated as being Slavi in official documents (charters, laws), and in medieval chronicles such as that penned by an anonymous notary of King Béla III at the beginning of the thirteenth century. […] As the Slovaks had not established their own state they continued to be known as Slavi, a term that was the Latin equivalent of the Old Slavic Slavieni.

• Alvis, Salvi, Silva, Sliva, Vials, Vilas, silva, vails, valis, vials, vilas