Nikola Tesla: Programme of Celebrations (1976) Page 24

Celebration of the 80th Anniversary of Tesla’s Birth at Smiljan in 1936

On the occasion of the 80th birthday of Nikola Tesla a national celebration was organized in Smiljan in 1936 which was attended by many foreign scientists. We give an account of parts of the celebration as seen and described by Marija Zackova an engineer from Prague.

“We are welcomed by children and adults from all over the region. Old Lika men, with grey hair and moustaches and deeply lined faces as if chiselled in stone, wiry and unsmiling, seemingly stern but with a friendly look in their eyes. Young girls with handsome, fresh faces, dark complexioned, smiling and shy. Many are wearing the region’s beautiful folk costumes with simple or rich embroidery. Some of these costumes are said to be more than a hundred years old and are kept at home in trunks to be put on only on special occasions. Women in brilliantly white dresses and heavy, hand-woven coloured aprons each of which is in itself a work of art executed with taste and skill, as are also the lovely embroidered bags going with the costume. They look after the visitores and take them first to the house where Tesla was born. It is a moving experience to compare the modesty of this home with the greatness of Tesla’s name today.

In the open area between the small church and the parsonage they have set up long tables, beautifully laid and decorated with flowers, where the guests, more than a hundred of them, are to be offered local specialities. Round the open space where the banquet is held, people from the surrounding villages have gathered to see these foreigners from various countries who have come here from all over the world to pay homage to their famous fellow-countryman. They stand there and watch and make no sound. It is touching to see this mass of silent, humble people who are careful not to disturb their guests even by speaking loudly. And when representatives of individual countries get up to express with a few warm words their gratefulness for the hospitality, everybody instinctively turns towards these people standing there in the background, because everybody feels that the famous scientist comes from these people and that they are the brothers of this famous son of Yugoslavia.

After the toasts the atmosphere becomes increasingly warm and cordial. The hosts bring a large basket of red Lika caps embroidered with black silk and decorated with black tassels which hang down to the shoulder. Suddenly the gathering changes into a poppy field, for every guest now has a red cap on his head given to him as a souvenir. The atmosphere becomes relaxed. The Germans, Irish and French look strange under these unusual cans. The peasants watch with curiosity, and even serious men can hardly hide their smiles. However, the girls are now ready to dance and we can already hear the sounds of a Yugoslav (Lika) reel.

It is only here that we can fully comprehend Tesla’s personality. A man who has worked and worked all his life exclusively for science, who has never exploited his personal fame, such a man could have been born only in this Lika, in this pure, transparent air, among these people of pure and transparent character who are so unassuming and unintrusive and at the same time, firm, persistent and devoid of any cunning ...”