11 September 2016 | Novi Sad, Serbia [Andrew McChesney/AR] The Adventist Church’s first free hug day in Serbia delights passersby — and a visiting journalist. I’d never seen a Seventh-day Adventist hug-a-thon before. But after joining a group of hugging teens on a walk through the Serbian city of Novi Sad last Saturday, I am ready to be a bear.
A fuzzy brown bear led a dozen Adventist teenagers in giving hugs to passersby on a popular pedestrian zone in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second-largest city, on 10 September. The “bear” — actually a 16-year-old boy from Bosnia — and the other teens study at the local Adventist-owned Živorad Janković boarding school.
The clean-cut teens with warm hugs and bright smiles brought a breath of fresh air to a downtown area filled with lazy outdoor cafes, rip-off name-brand clothing shops such as the “Undercover Colors of Benneton,” and sidewalk souvenir vendors hawking obscenity-covered refrigerator magnets.
An elderly woman wept after receiving a hug from the bear, followed by tight hugs from two teenage girls.
“I haven’t been hugged in a long time,” she said, tears running down her cheek.
Most passersby were all smiles.
The bear ambled on thick elevated paws down the street, giving hugs to wide-eyed children, delighted women, and red-faced but clearly pleased men.
Two young woman distributing advertising brochures stopped their work to hug the bear and pose for selfies with their cell phones.
After getting a hug, a boy of about 10 pushed his grandmother into the bear’s arms and gestured for his mother, seated at an umbrella-covered table at an outdoor cafe cloaked in cigarette smoke, to join them.
A group of four young men, smartly dressed in suits and ties, each accepted a hug and, faces beaming, pulled out their cell phones to take photos.
After giving 200 hugs in an hour, Dario Bratić says, “I am going to explode from happiness.”
Havran rented the bear costume in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, located an hour’s drive to the south, and brought it to Novi Sad for the weekend. The idea of giving free hugs to strangers originated with Adventist young people in Brazil and has been replicated in several West European countries as well as in Africa during the church’s annual Global Youth Day every March.
Havran emphasized the health benefits of hugging at a health club meeting and vegan potluck lunch held shortly before the Sabbath walk. He said a hug that lasts at least seven seconds triggers “happy hormones” that make a person feel good.
The student in the bear suit, Dario Bratić, told me after the walk that he was overflowing with happy hormones.
“I am going to explode from happiness,” he said with a laugh.
Bratić estimated that he had given about 200 hugs during the hourlong walk.
“I would do this very day if I had the chance,” he said. “It is something so special. There is nothing to compare it. I’m ready to be a full-time bear.”
Seeing Bratić’s unabashed joy, I am ready to be a full-time bear, too. [tedNEWS]
Article first published in Adventist Review. It is part of a south-east European trip by Andrew McChesney (Adventist Review) and Victor Hulbert (TED). Other articles in this series:
Adventists, spurned by Serbia’s bookstores, set up shop near Orthodox church
Adventist Lectures are bigger draw than theatre for some in Serbia
Helping refugees ‘as important as preaching the Second Coming’
tedNEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, director; Esti Pujic, editor
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