Virtual Events All Week Lead Up to Live, Outdoor Kurentovanje Festival

Table of Content

• Slovenian National Home Kenik Room Fundraiser
• Virtual Events All Week Lead Up to Live, Outdoor Kurentovanje Festival
• Winchester Offers Burlesque Brunch on Christmas Eve Day
• By Marion E. Bocian, Recording Secretary, Board of Directors (
• Cleveland Kurentovanje, Slovenian-infused Mardi Gras carnival, returns to St. Clair-Superior neighborhood
• December Social Date Change It's Now On

In 2001 the cost of certificates rose to $10 each due to increase costs to maintain the Home. There are 1,400 certificate holders on record as of 2015. On the north wall of the main reception hall hang two massive paintings of a man and woman each about 10 feet high, dressed in traditional Slovenian garb donated by PSWA Circle #3. West of the hall are three Balina courts, where club members’ play. During the summer the Clubroom sponsors Balina teams consisting of both men and women. The basement lower hall contains a bar room, kitchen, club room with kitchen, storage rooms, the boiler room and multiple restrooms.

While use of the Slovene language has all but disappeared in large parts of the community, there seems little doubt that Slovenes in Cleveland will remain a coherent entity for decades to come. Saturday, Feb. 28 is the main festival day of the 2022 Cleveland Kurentovanje. Followed by a parade at noon featuring cultural and local organizations. Cleveland Kurentovanje is a week-long Slovenian-infused Mardi Gras carnival.The “Kurent Jump” will kick off the festival’s in-person events as the Kurents emerge from their year-long hibernation. Attendees can enjoy hearty stews, drinks and live music from the Chardon Polka band.

Slovenian National Home Kenik Room Fundraiser

Reduced to essentials, this cleavage had religiously oriented Slovenes on one side, buttressed by the Slovene-American Catholic clergy, while liberal, "freethinking," and socialist Slovenes were on the other side. In Cleveland, this resulted in the formation of parallel sets of institutions. Many of the singing societies, for example, comprised in the main Slovenes from one side or the other, and this differentiation applied as well to the audience.

The first Slovenes to arrive in Cleveland settled in the NEWBURGH area and found employment in the nearby steel industry. By the later 1880s and early 1890s, a much larger Slovene community began forming along St. Clair Ave., which, at its greatest extent in the 1920s and 1930s, reached from E. 79th streets, north to the lake and south to Superior Ave. By the early 1900s, another sizable Slovene community emerged in the COLLINWOOD area and into EUCLID. Relatively few Slovenes settled on the west side of Cleveland; however, 2 small communities did develop, one in WEST PARK and the other in the Denison neighborhood. By the 1980s, Lake County cities had sizable Slovene populations, as did MAPLE HTS.

Virtual Events All Week Lead Up to Live, Outdoor Kurentovanje Festival

Other organizations common to a Roman Catholic parish were also established. The breeding ground of Johnny Pecon, Frank Yankovic and the Habat Family, Collinwood Slovenian Home has been a bastion of Cleveland-Style polka activity. As Cleveland’s Slovenian population migrated from the St. Clair neighborhood to the railroad yards and suburban atmosphere of the Collinwood enclave, the need arose for a new cultural oasis. Fifty-six stockholders raised $1,320 and a community brick-hauling brigade was enlisted to build Cleve-land’s first all-new Slovenian home. The facility featured a hall with a stage for plays and concerts; another for weddings, dances and banquets; and a club room, ideally suited for transacting business in a social setting. Out of funds in 1929 and forced to add to its mortgage, Collinwood Home survived the Great Depression, retired all debt by 1948, and has since been regularly renovated.

Some virtual events are free while others require tickets. In the 1940’s people were making changes in their way of life and the fraternal and cultural groups had lost ground. Members began to bypass sports, social and other events. The Board of Directors appointed a Building Committee to present to its members a request for the need of a new home.

Winchester Offers Burlesque Brunch on Christmas Eve Day

The new building, constructed around the old Diemer Mansion, could handle large and small affairs simultaneously in 2 auditoriums and several meeting rooms. Library, the sokol gymnasium, and has been the scene of numerous events, with nearly 100 fraternal, political, social, cultural, and sports societies, mostly Slovenian-American, having used the facility. Activities at the home revitalized in the 1960s with groups established by a new generation of young Slovenian immigrants. The children of older immigrants returned to the hall for meetings and special occasions such as debutante balls. Thanksgiving Day polka festivals attracted upward of 2,000 each year. The hall also hosted political rallies and visits by various local and state candidates.

By the 1940s, each of the major Cleveland and suburban settlements had its own Natl. St. Vitus, the first Cleveland Slovenian Catholic parish, began in 1893 when the city's Slovenians wanted to attend services in their native language. 61st Street and Glass Avenue, and it is still an active Slovenian parish today. In addition to religious activities, St. Vitus provided the community with social services and cultural events, and it continues, along with the Slovenian National Home, to serve as a central organization for Slovenians today.

By Marion E. Bocian, Recording Secretary, Board of Directors (

CLEVELAND — For the 10th year in a row, Cleveland’s St. Clair-Superior neighborhood will celebrate the week-long Slovenian-infused Mardi Gras celebration known as Cleveland Kurentovanje, which kicks off Feb. 20 and ends Feb. 26. Two years after the addition was built the lower hall and Clubroom were flooded with 8 ft. of water by a horrible rain storm. It was discovered that the main sewer lines were above the floor level of the lower hall causing water to backup into the hall.

The Lira singing society, formed in 1912, appealed primarily to Catholic Slovenes residing in the St. Clair community, for example, while the ZARJA SINGING SOCIETY was founded in 1916 under the sponsorship of a socialist club. There were many exceptions to this pattern, but it is not possible to understand the history of the Cleveland Slovene community without recognizing this ideological separation. A vote was taken by the Board and it was agreed by a 12 to 10 vote to retain the Home and make improvements. Cultural and civic affairs were centered in the Home, which brought to the attention of the public that perseverance and diligence to high ideals made possible such an outstanding center for events to all. The Slovenian Society Home is situated on about two acres on the western fringe of the City of Euclid. The property and facilities are located between Recher Avenue to the south, North Vine Avenue to the north, and bounded on the west by Ljubljana Drive.

Profit from this concert in the amount of $301 was donated to the hall. Another chorus under the name of “Zorislava” was organized and had their first concert on March 26, 1927. The chorus existed six years under the direction of Peter Srnovrsnik.

The first officers were Lucija Leskovec, Pres.; Mary Strekal, Vice Pres.; Mrs. Dorothy Zele, Secretary; Mary Misic, Treasurer; and Ursula Rotar, Recording Secretary. The Ladies Auxiliary cooked for many of the affairs held at this hall. In 1959 they started to have fish fries on Fridays and have continued to this past year 2003. This group of women are responsible for modernizing all 3 kitchens, updating equipment and making generous donations. The Board of Directors would have been at a loss without their hard work and dedication to the Slovenian Society Home. A dramatic group was organized on October 18, 1930 under the name of Nasa Zvesda , many members from the former “Adrija” became members.

Neighborhoods

Enterprising individuals began opening taverns, which soon became social centers, with the owners assuming a prominent social and economic role among their fellow countrymen and often expanding into other business ventures. Over time, some of the immigrants sent for wives and children and fiancées; family units began to appear. Most of the Slovene immigrants came from a strongly Roman Catholic religious tradition and one of their earliest desires was to have their spiritual needs attended to by Slovene-speaking priests. ST. VITUS parish, serving the St. Clair community, was organized in 1893; St. Lawrence parish appeared in 1901 in the Newburgh area; while St. Mary parish was founded in Collinwood in 1906. Each of the Slovene national parishes also established a parochial school, although by the 1980s the St. Lawrence school had closed and the existence of the St. Vitus and St. Mary schools was endangered.

Michelle Pušič Ryall will demonstrate Slovenian culinary favorites and registrants will get a list of ingredients in advance so they can cook along with Michelle at home. Cleveland Kurentovanje, a Slovenian celebration of anticipation for spring, was launched in the St. Clair/East 65thStreet area ten years ago. It gradually expanded into a week-long series of events. By the 1990s, the Slovene community in the Cleveland area numbered well over 50,000, although many of these were no longer ethnically conscious. Yet the community vigorously continued supporting literally hundreds of organizations reflecting their ethnic heritage and traditions.

As a rule, these refugees were better educated than their predecessors and politically very conscious. Although accepted by most of the Catholic community, they were viewed with suspicion and hostility by the liberal, or "progressive" wing of the Slovenes. These newest arrivals soon became active in the cultural life of the community, reinvigorating it. In the 1950s they founded the Korotan Singing Society and Kres Folklore Dance Group. In the later 1970s, their U.S.-born offspring established the Fantje Na Vasi men's chorus and were the backbone of the Lilija Dramatic Society. At St. Vitus and St. Mary parishes, Saturday Slovene-language schools remained active into the 1990s.

The Slovenian Society Home has hosted many special events. In 1941 there was a magnificent Euclid Slovenian Day in honor of poet, composer and musical director Ivan Zorman and the Home hosted a concert. In 1948 the Euclid Vets hosted President Truman and Frank J. Lausche, Governor of Ohio with programs and exhibits. Another was hosting then candidate for President, Jimmy Carter in September of 1976 along with Howard Metzenbaum, and Dennis Eckart, Ohio House of Representative. In 1977 the Progressive Slovene Women of America hosted a National Conference and Symposium to honor Louis Adamic. Hosted bowling tournament banquets, and Balina tournaments.