Entire neighborhood often comes to Stojanovic's home, because only Milena knows the craft which is 4.000 years old (PHOTO)

Gingerbread hearts, lollipops and the rest- are sweets made of sugar or honey, flour and water. Milena makes them by the old recipe she got from her grand grandfather, famous sweet maker from Razanj region. 

Recommended

CHOCOLATE CEMETERY IN THE HEART OF BELGRADE: This video will shock all sweet tooth people! (VIDEO)

The Assumption fast started and it lasts for 14 days, there are not much candy, and those who enjoy the taste of old times and have their hearts trembling when they think about the childhood, wish for the gingerbread cookies.

There are almost no more people who can make them, and only one family in Paracin keeps the tradition of this craft alive. Those are Stojanovic family, and the whole neighbourhood comes here, more often than before, because gingerbread sweets are unique choice for the fast. The youngest Milena (28) is known by everybody who go to fairs, gatherings and ethno manifestations all around Sumadija and Pomoravlje region. She has graduated management, and since there has been no work in the past two years, she brought back to life the family tradition.

- My grand grandfather was from Razanj, and he was by far the most famous gingerbread cookies master.  Grandpa and father later went on their own way, but since father has retired, and i am without work, we found old recipes and decided to return to the family tradition. It took me some time to learn it. At first, i was just help. To bring something, hold, pack for sale. And now i am keep to make them. Not a day goes by without me making something, decorate it, and there are plenty of customers during fast time - explains Milena.

Foto: Telegraf

Main cooks are her father and her, but she has help from her boyfriend Marko. To create once famous gingerbread hearts, it takes quite some time because its a very touchy work, especially the decoration. Every heart is an unique, there are no two that are the same, and to decorate one Milena spends at least an hour. Big hearts are usually ordered for weddings, and the newlyweds give them to each other, and sometimes they even decorate the tables with it. The biggest heart Milena made was 30 centimeters long.

She explains that every sweet has a different preparation process.

Foto: Telegraf

- The sugar must be melted to the precisely determined temperature,. In some sweets the hardness is important, at other the twist. Children like the ones with drawn cartoon characters, even more than the heart shaped ones. I color them with edible colors, and when i make them, i put a picture as an extra. Little ones enjoy seeing Simpsons, Smurfs, Disney heroes. And when it comes to hearts, young often buy them for presents, rarely to eat them - explains Milena.

Foto: Telegraf

The craft is 4.000 years old, and the shops to create the sweets existed all the way back in Egypt. Romans transferred the skill to Europe, and it flourished on Balkan and Serbia in the time of Austro - Hungary. The craftsmen lived very well from this skill, whole families were supported by it. Today, this craft is slowly dying out, and it is still found among the families that "drag" tradition, just as the Stojanovic family do from Paracin.

As Milena said, if she doesn't find the job in her line of work, what has been the past for her family could easily become the future.

(Telegraf.co.uk / Z.R.P.)