According to the Gregorian calendar, the first day of the new year begins today.

Today marks the celebration of the Orthodox New Year. January 14 according to the Julian calendar corresponds to the first day of the new year according to the Gregorian calendar.

Thus, the New Year is welcomed by members of the Serbian Orthodox Church and Orthodox Christians in Montenegro, North Macedonia, Russia, Belarus, Georgia, and in some of the ancient patriarchates.

In Serbian tradition, the Orthodox New Year is also known as Little Christmas. In some regions, the remains of the Christmas tree are burned on this day. According to folk tradition, it is customary to bring a new item into the home on New Year’s Day to bring good luck and progress throughout the year.

At the Intercultural Dialogue Association, we see this holiday as another opportunity to learn about the rich traditions that also coexist within Slovenian society. May the Orthodox New Year be a time of peace, meaningful encounters, and open dialogue among people of different cultures and faiths.

As the MKD Association, we are active in the field of interfaith dialogue throughout the year. You can read more about our activities related to interfaith dialogue HERE.

We will resume our regular conversation club meetings in the first week of February

Applications are now open for the new semester of the Slovenian language conversation club for foreign speakers at levels A2/B1.

Application deadline: 14 January 2026
Semester start: 3 February 2026

The conversation club is intended for foreign speakers of Slovenian who have completed at least one official Slovenian language course for foreigners and have reached level A2/B1.

Based on the applications received, we will form 3–4 groups. The number of places is limited (8 participants per group). Each group will meet once a week.

The semester will consist of 15 weekly sessions with a mentor who leads the conversation club.
More details about the program and participation conditions will be provided upon registration at: medkulturnidialoginfo@gmail.com.

Participants who attend regularly will receive our certificate of active participation with at least 80% attendance.

Current participants of the conversation group confirm that regular attendance helps them improve their Slovenian speaking skills and, above all, gain greater confidence when communicating with Slovenian speakers.

We warmly invite new participants to join us. As the number of places is limited, we kindly ask all applicants to attend the conversation group regularly if they decide to enroll.

On January 6, Christians celebrate the Feast of the Three Kings (Epiphany).

On this day, January 6, Catholic Christians celebrate the Feast of the Three Kings, also known in Christian tradition as the Epiphany. According to Christian tradition, this day commemorates the revelation of Jesus as the Son of God to all people. It marks the visit of the wise men from the East, who followed a star to the newborn Jesus in Bethlehem, where they recognized him as king and presented him with three gifts – gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Interestingly, the Bible does not actually specify how many wise men there were. The number three became established later, mainly because of the three gifts they brought. In Slovenia, they were given the names Gašper, Miha, and Boltežar, which derive from the Latin names Kasper, Melchior, and Balthazar. Artistic depictions of the wise men as coming from the three then-known continents appeared in late antiquity and the Middle Ages. The purpose of these representations was to emphasize that Jesus is meant for all people of the world. All these details remind us how stories and traditions develop and evolve across different cultures over the centuries.

The journey of the Three Kings, guided by a star, calls us to openness, curiosity, and respect for differences, as well as to a willingness to engage in dialogue.

At the Intercultural Dialogue Association, we see this holiday as a powerful symbol of connecting cultures and faiths. May today be an opportunity to reflect on shared values such as peace, solidarity, and mutual respect, and serve as an encouragement to build bridges between people.

As the MKD Association, we are active in the field of interfaith dialogue throughout the year. You can read more about our activities related to interfaith dialogue HERE.

In 2026, we will continue to organize regular Turkish breakfasts.

On Saturday, 3rd of January, we invited three families to join us at the premises of our Intercultural Dialogue Association, where we gathered around the table before noon. The table was once again richly set with Turkish delicacies, and our guests also generously brought their own savory and sweet dishes.

Our Turkish breakfast

We invited a family from Egypt, a Slovenian–Malaysian family, and a Slovenian–Sudanese couple. They were hosted by our volunteers, Nesrin and Murat from Turkey.

A cheerful gathering around our table

After a plentiful and delicious Turkish breakfast, we enjoyed Turkish coffee and something sweet. The gathering took place in a very pleasant atmosphere, and we are looking forward to meeting again.

Another Turkish breakfast with new guests awaits us in January. Would you like to join us next time? Write to us at info@mkdia.org.

We have entered a new year with January 1st

Behind us is a very successful year 2025. Throughout the year, we carried out numerous projects and collaborations, strengthened advocacy efforts, launched new internal activities, and consistently created space for intercultural and interfaith dialogue, cooperation, and connection.

Highlights of our collaborations and activities in 2025:

We enter 2026 with great motivation, new ideas, and gratitude for all our partners, collaborators, and participants who help us build bridges every day.

We wish you a peaceful, open, and connecting year 2026. Happy New Year!

In the final month of this year, we organized and took part in numerous events. You can read more about them in our new monthly newsletter, where we share everything that took place over the past month.

If you missed any of our recent posts, the Newsletter MKD will surely come in handy!

In the spirit of intercultural and interfaith dialogue, we once again gave gifts to our friends this year.

During the festive season, the volunteers of the Intercultural Dialogue Association came together to prepare and wrap holiday gifts, which we distributed during the Christmas and New Year period to friends and colleagues from associations and institutions we collaborated with over the past year.

The activity was not intended solely as an act of gift-giving, but also as a way to strengthen intercultural dialogue. Through meetings, conversations, and the exchange of greetings, we created space for mutual understanding, respect, and connection among people from different cultural and religious backgrounds.

In this way, the small gifts became an opportunity to build relationships, strengthen collaboration, and spread a message of solidarity, openness, and community—the foundations of our association’s work.

In addition to gift-giving, we also took time in December for festive dinners. We invited participants of our activities, friends, and collaborators to the premises of the Intercultural Dialogue Association to gather and enjoy a holiday meal together. If you missed our previous post, you can find it again HERE.

On December 16, we took part in a very special event at the Jesuit College.

On Tuesday, December 16, an Evening Academy dedicated to the theme of interreligious dialogue took place at the Jesuit College. The event was organized in cooperation with the Jesuit College, our MKD Association, and the Social Academy.

The main guest of the evening was the Jesuit Fr. Dr. Ivan Platovnjak, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Ljubljana. In his lecture, he first emphasized the importance of relationships and dialogue in human coexistence, and then turned to the question of relations between religions. He presented the Christian perspective on interreligious dialogue, particularly in the light of the encyclical Fratelli tutti and the declaration Nostra aetate, and also highlighted the Islamic understanding of dialogue and the importance of mutual respect.

We were delighted to take part in the event together with the members of the Intercultural Dialogue Association. The audience was also addressed by our association’s president, Mr. Furkan Güner. The informal part of the evening continued with pleasant socializing and a reception featuring traditional Turkish savory and sweet dishes prepared by our volunteers.

The shared experience of the evening confirmed that dialogue between Christians and Muslims is not only possible, but also rich and fruitful when it is grounded in humility, attentive listening, and openness. Beyond dialogue, meaningful cooperation is also possible—and this is exactly what we experienced together at the Evening Academy.

As the MKD Association, we are active in the field of interfaith dialogue throughout the year. You can read more about our activities related to interfaith dialogue HERE.

The autumn semester of the conversation club in Slovene for foreigners has come to an end.

In the week before the Christmas and New Year holidays, we concluded the autumn semester of the conversation club. For the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday groups, we organized final sessions where we talked about various holidays and customs from the countries of our participants.

The Wednesday group at the final session

The end of the semester also brought an opportunity to award the promised certificates of participation. As many as half of our participants have been attending the conversation group regularly every week since the beginning of September. With 80% attendance, they earned a certificate of active participation in our now very popular conversation club.

Certificates for dedicated participants

Over a sweet holiday treat, we gathered together for the last time this year. A little over a month-long break now lies ahead, after which we will once again actively speak Slovenian in the next semester.

The Thursday group in a reduced turnout due to seasonal colds

In the coming days, we will take time to plan the new semester. We will begin with our regular sessions in the first week of February 2026. Would you like to join us? Write to us at: medkulturnidialoginfo@gmail.com.

Commemorating the International migrants day, we also cooked at DSO Novo mesto

As part of the project “My Path – Raising Awareness in the Host Society about Migration Issues”, we also visited Novo mesto, more specifically the Home for the Elderly, where we carried out a cooking workshop in cooperation with the Association for the Development of Voluntary Work Novo mesto (DRPDNM).

In addition to our team, which prepared two Turkish specialties for the event, Ukrainian, Nepali, and Palestinian dishes were also cooked for the residents of the Novo mesto Home for the Elderly.

This time, our volunteers decided to prepare vegetarian bulgur balls, Fellah Köftesi, and a pumpkin dessert, Kabak Tatlisi.

On the occasion of Migrants’ Day, which we marked last week, we had the opportunity—within the framework of the project—to speak about our migration experiences and to engage in intercultural dialogue. Approximately one hundred people attended the event.

We would like to thank the Association for the Development of Voluntary Work Novo mesto. We look forward to future collaborations as well!

We invite you to also watch the video on our YouTube channel HERE.