Tea Day takes place every September 11 in Mt. Ozren, Bosnia and Herzegovina. On that day, the focus is on the medicinal herb Teucrium montanum (iva grass), which people harvest in groups and enjoy in tea. Locals believe in its exceptional medicinal properties.
They climb up Gostilij to pick iva and get into smaller groups once the harvest is done, play, dance, and sing in folk costumes of Ozren, which have long since disappeared from everyday use. In the afternoon, the Orthodox priests climb Gostilij to consecrate iva. It can be consumed in different ways as a tea, soaked in brandy, mixed with honey for both its curative and preventative effects.
Iva herb grows exclusively in mountainous areas and it must be harvested by hand, which takes a substantial amount of time. It’s collected to be used in various ways, such as tea, brandy, and honey products. Located in central Serbia, near the town of Sokobanja, an area well known as a well-forested mountain, an attractive spot for picnics, especially aromatic wild herbs, and for its folk tales and customs.
For centuries, the Balkans have had an old national belief that iva grass has been used to treat mental and physical recovery after a long illness or extremely severe physical or mental exhaustion. Also to purify the body and the respiratory tract as well as relieve pain in the stomach and soothe the skin. Additionally, the belief is that iva grass can cure any disease, which is why locals say "the grass of the living from the dead makes the living."
Today, as in the past, transmission occurs spontaneously within the family, with no formal forms and rules. When children or adults are sick, iva tea or honey in which iva grass has been crushed is given to them. This is done either to prevent disease or to treat it.
Adults often drink a glass of brandy-soaked in willow tar. However, until today, iva grass picking is still associated with that practice, but it also symbolizes solidarity, hospitality, social integration, as well as safeguarding the costumes and songs, and games that have slowly been disappearing throughout the era.