Around 40 riders, men and women, set off this afternoon from the courtyard of the Church of St Peter and Paul in the Skopje neighbourhood of Gorno Lisiče, heading for Kruševo. This is the 48th Traditional Ilinden Horse March - almost five decades of tradition dedicated to honouring Ilinden and the Macedonian heroes of the uprising.

Their first stop is Dolno Lisiče, then Petrovec and Veles. On 31 July the riders from Gorno Lisiče will join up with participants from Sveti Nikole, Kičevo and Bitola. The final destination is Kruševo, where the central celebration takes place on 2 August.

In parallel, with the blessing of the Bigorski Monastery, a second column set out for Kruševo under the name „The Road of the Cherrywood Cannon”. Around thirty riders arrived at the Monastery of St John the Baptist, where they prayed and received a blessing for the journey to Mečkin Kamen. Ahead of them lie roughly 200 kilometres through Macedonian villages and mountain country.

The choice of monastery is not incidental. According to historical tradition, it was the monks of Bigorski who made the cherrywood cannons used in the Ilinden Uprising. It is one of those links between church, craft and rebellion that gets a single sentence in a textbook - and two days on horseback here.

This year's march includes people from Gostivar, Prosenikovo, Ḱanaklija, Piperevo, Vasilevo, Radovo, Murtino, Saraj, Novo Konjarevo and Ilovica. Read that list again - those are villages from the Strumica, Gostivar and Radoviš areas. No single region, no single party, no single speech.

In his address, Archimandrite Dositej urged them to carry the legacy of the Ilinden fighters to younger generations, not to forget the sacrifice of their ancestors, and to unite around shared values.

The organisers say this year's march is dedicated to Macedonian unity and sends the message that love of the homeland should be a force that unites rather than a reason to divide. The patron of the Gorno Lisiče march this year is VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski, with the Municipality of Gazi Baba as a supporter.

Ilinden is the holiday people here talk about most and agree least on what it actually means. Forty people on horseback and 200 kilometres of road to Mečkin Kamen are at least one answer that does not require a microphone.