On May 24, the Day of the All-Slavic Enlighteners, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski opened the central celebrations in Ohrid with a speech at a solemn academy in the church of "St. Sophia." Theme: "From Letter to Eternity." The program also included laying flowers at the monument to Cyril and Methodius on the Ohrid quay.

An identical schedule, a uniform day - a few speeches, a ceremony, a photograph - repeated every year for decades, with the same statements from rotating political figures. This is one of those years when nothing happened very differently. Still, despite the traditional rhythm, this time the celebrations land at a moment when Macedonian is again under political pressure from the EU negotiation process with Bulgaria.

President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova emphasized in her message that "language is not just a sum of words, but a collective memory, a code of values and belonging that one people carries through time." Parliament Speaker Afrim Gashi led a delegation to the Vatican for similar celebrations, and from the opposition SDS, leader Venko Filipche reminded that "no one can threaten what has been internationally confirmed" in relation to Macedonian language rights in the EU.

The question everyone sidesteps in these speeches: if the language is really "recognized and protected," why does this sentence need to be repeated every year with such insistence? Recognition isn't something that demands daily reaffirmation - it's something that either exists or doesn't. The more it gets repeated, the more it looks like we are reassuring ourselves about something we aren't sure of.

The solemn academies in Ohrid have their role - cultural, spiritual, symbolic. But when the political leadership stands in front of the same church with the same text for 15 years running, citizens have a right to ask - what's actually new? And if nothing is new - maybe that's precisely the point.