On 20 May we celebrate World Bee Day. This date marks the birth, more than 270 years ago, of Anton Janša, a pioneer of modern beekeeping, an academy-trained painter and beekeper, and the first teacher of beekeping in imperial Vienna.

The year 1991 was a turning point for Slovenia and Slovenians. In that year, Slovenia appeared on the world political map as an independent country. The year 2004 was an important milestone for Slovenia, as in that year it joined the European Union and NATO. On 1 January 2007, Slovenia became the first of the new Member States to adopt the EU's common currency. It was also the first new Member State to hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, during the first half of 2008.

Monasteries seem to be a remnant of some distant past, but there are quite a few that are still very much alive. Slovenia has 42 operating monasteries, 14 that have been closed down, and some monasteries that have fallen into ruin.

We also show our respect for the country through respect for its symbols. The coat of arms, flag and national anthem of the Republic of Slovenia are symbols that indicate affiliation with the country.

Slovenia seems to be globally known only thanks to its extraordinary athletes and magnificent nature. Are we really simply the country of sport heroes, the Planica giants ski jumping hill, Bled Island and wonderful Piran? Certainly not. Slovenia is a country of many talents. Whatever we undertake, we make a difference. We triumph, we are the first to ascend peaks, we make scientific breakthroughs.

On 8 May 2020, the 7th Student Company Fair took place. This year, it was held online. At the concluding event the panel presented prizes and awards to the best student companies.

Slovenians are hard-working and motivated people. Work is an important value and we strive to be good at what we do. We see creativity as a source of encouragement for the development of society, and it comes as no surprise that the Slovenian business environment is based on the following approach: green, creative and smart.

Statistics show Slovenians to be among the top mountaineering powers in the Himalayas Eighteen Slovenians have already reached the peak of Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth, following three different routes. Slovenians can boast many achievements on Everest: tracing a new route on the mountain, a women’s ascent, an ascent without supplemental oxygen, and the first integral ski descent down the mountain’s south face.

Culture is the pride and heart of our national identity. The attitude of Slovenians to their national culture is quite intense, and Slovenia boasts a well-developed network of cultural institutions, organisations and associations comparable to most developed European countries.There is a rich cultural life not only in the biggest towns, but in almost every corner of Slovenia.

Slovenia, a green boutique destination offering five-star experiences, can pride itself on a multitude of flattering titles, including the most beautiful, the safest and the most hipster country. Five Slovenian municipalities have more beds for tourists than they have for local people, and every year records are broken in terms of visits to the country on the sunny side of the Alps, which is also one of the cleanest countries in the world. A question that is often asked around here is how long Slovenia will be able to fly the green flag and, on that basis, top sustainability lists.

Painted beehive panels are an essential element in the history of Slovenian beekeeping and even in the history of Slovenian folk spiritual culture. These panels are the same to the fine arts as songs and tales are in literary folk art. But the images from beehive panels tell a special story of Slovenian history, ideas, beliefs and customs. They are unique historical records.

The confirmed age of the Old Vine, which grows in Maribor, is over 400 years and it is entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest noble vine in the world. It still bears grapes from which a very special wine is made.

The World Expo hosted by Dubai in the United Arab Emirates will commence at the beginning of October 2021 and last until 31 March 2022. Among the 192 participating countries, Slovenia will be featured with its national pavilion under the slogan, Slovenia. Green Smart Experience., as a sustainable, modern, creative and future-oriented country.

The beginnings of mass motorization in Slovenia go back to the 1960s and coincide with the construction of new road sections and the planning of the first few kilometres of motorways. As a result, this increase in traffic, along with some other causes, led to an increased number of road traffic fatalities. One of the major issues at that time was the use of high beam headlights, which dazzled drivers in the preceding vehicles and other traffic participants alike. To prevent such behaviour, a campaign was launched, the purpose of which was to put a stop to such dangerous behaviour and to raise awareness among the drivers that they were not alone on the road and that for safety’s reasons they needed to switch off their full beam headlights. The emphasis here was particularly on the night driving.

On December 27, 1936, after the performance of his choir in Podgora, the Gorizia patriot, composer, organist and choir conductor Lojze Bratuž (1902–1937) was forced to drink a mixture of machine oil and petrol by a group of fascists. Less than two months later he was dead. Although the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia does not keep documents about the actual horrific attack, we do keep documents that may shed light on some less known reactions of the Italian local authorities to his death. Namely, the preserved documents reveal the plans of the Gorizia Office of Quaestor to secure Bratuž's funeral, which points to a fact that Italian authorities feared that the funeral may lead to riots. The authorities also supervised Bratuž's grave, because they were afraid that the so-called "cult of Bratuž" might be developing.

The first "Yugoslav" Himalayan expedition (I. JAHO) was the longest Slovenian expedition. It lasted from March to August 1960 because the team travelled to their destination and back by ship. The expedition included seven Slovenian climbers and managed to reach the summits of Baraltoli (5720 m), Trisul II (6690 m) and Trisul III (6270 m). Preserved by the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, among its records of the Alpine Association of Slovenia, are documents and photos from the expedition. This month's archivalia presents the journey of the expedition and provides a glimpse into the everyday life of the climbers.

At the end of World War I the world was in the grip of the Spanish flu, which in the Slovenian territory claimed around 6000 lives. The epidemic here was of short duration, perhaps also due to suitable measures taken. To prevent the spreading of the infectious disease, the government of the newly founded State of SHS issued a decree in mid-November 1918, ordering those returning from the front line and those who had already returned but had not been examined yet to undergo obligatory physical examination. The duty of enforcing this state decree was assigned to local authorities. Public proclamation of one such authority, the Ljubljana Town Hall, is preserved by the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia.

In 2018 the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia purchased a small, but extremely interesting collection of archival material, which is believed to have been preserved at the Vransko Manor. Although the collection includes no more than eight pieces - all of them written on parchment and paper - the records themselves actually span over a longer period of time between 1239 and 1831. The most interesting and most revealing record about the Müller-Hörnstein family is a charter which was written as a proof of ancestry (the so-called Ahnenprobe) in Vienna in 1806.

Slovenian folk tradition has preserved a number of “efficient ways of protection” against various misfortunes and one such "weapon" was also Kolemonov žegen.The original is believed to have been written in Latin. It spread across the German territory and as a translated version found its way from the present-day Carinthia across the entire territory of today’s Slovenia. It contained a collection of protective prayers, formulas and magic words, superstitions and instructions on how to get the favour of supernatural beings so as to avoid any misfortunes and be successful in acquiring earthy material goods.

Ivan Cankar has up to now been the focus of two articles in our online series Archivalia of the Month; in March 2011 we presented the report on censorship in regard to the staging of Cankar's play Hlapci, and in August 2013 we published the court document, revealing how Cankar's lecture Slovenians and Yugoslavs earned its author a week in prison in 1913. This month's archivalia focuses on one of his muses, to whom the writer wrote an original dedication, although the actual written media on which he chose to write this dedication (a postcard depicting St. James's Church in Ljubljana) seems somewhat less original.