Culture of Serbia
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Serbian culture is a term that encompasses the artistic, culinary, literary, musical, political and social elements that are representative of Serbs and Serbia.
History
The
Religion
Conversion of the
After the Schism, those who lived under the Byzantine
Later, with the arrival of the Ottoman Empire, one group of Serbs converted to
During World War II the Serbs, who lived in a wide area, were persecuted by various peoples and organisations. Catholic Croats within the Independent State of Croatia recognised the Serbs only as "Croats of the Eastern Greek faith". They held the ideological view that one third of the Serbs were to be murdered, one third were to be converted and the last third expelled.[4] This view led to the deaths of at least 700,000 people, the religious conversion of 250,000 as well as mass expulsion.[5]
According to the 2011 Serbian census, 6,079,396 people (84.6%) identified themselves as Christian Orthodox, five per cent Roman Catholic, three per cent Muslim and one per cent Protestant.[6]
Names
Given names
As with most
Popular names are mostly of Serbian (Slavic), Christian (Biblical), Greek and Latin origin. Some examples are:
Surnames
Most Serbian surnames (like Bosnian, Croatian and Montenegrin) have the
The -ić suffix, with variants "-ović"/"-ević", is originally a Slavic diminutive and its meaning has been extended to create
Other common surname suffixes are -ov or -in which is the Slavic
Cuisine
Most people in Serbia have three meals daily, breakfast, lunch and dinner, with lunch being the largest and most important meal. However, people traditionally ate only lunch and dinner, with breakfast being introduced in the second half of the 19th century.[9]
Background
Traditional Serbian cuisine is varied and can be said to be a mix of European, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern fare. Day.
Homemade meals
A number of foods which are easily available in Western supermarkets, are often made at home in Serbia. These include
). There can be economic or cultural reasons behind these food choices. Food preparation is a strong part of the Serbian family tradition.Desserts
Serbian desserts are a mixture of other Balkan desserts and desserts native to central Serbia. The desserts that are usually served include
Drinks
Language
Serbs speak the
The Serbian language comprises several dialects, the standard language is based on the
It is an official language in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. In Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, North Macedonia and Romania, it is a regionally recognised minority language.
There are also historical variants of the Serbian language, namely
Serbian is the only European language with active
Loanwords in the Serbian language are mostly from Turkish, German and Italian; words of Hungarian origin are present mostly in the north and Greek words mostly in the liturgy.
Two Serbian words that are used in many of the world's languages are
Literature
Most Medieval literature was about religious themes. Various
Notable
In the 20th century, Serbian literature flourished and a myriad of young and talented writers appeared. The most well-known authors are Ivo Andrić, Miloš Crnjanski, Meša Selimović, Borislav Pekić, Danilo Kiš, Milorad Pavić, David Albahari, Miodrag Bulatović, Dobrica Ćosić, Zoran Živković among others. Jelena Dimitrijević and Isidora Sekulić are two early 20th century women writers; Svetlana Velmar-Janković was the best-known female novelist in mi-20th and early 21st century. Ivo Andrić won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961.
Milorad Pavić is one of the most widely acclaimed Serbian authors, most notably for his Dictionary of the Khazars, which has been translated into 38 languages.[15]
Traditions and customs
Among
- Slava, Serbian Orthodox Patron saint veneration
- Kumstvo, God-parenthood in the Serbian Orthodox Church
- Pobratimstvo, blood-brotherhood
- Serbian Christmas traditions
- Badnjak (Serbian), Christmas tradition
- Serbian epic poetry, Epic poetry
- Čuvari Hristovog groba is a religious/cultural practice of guarding a representation of Christ's grave on Good Friday in the Church of St. Nicholas by the Serbian Orthodox inhabitants in the town of Vrlika
The Serbs are a highly family-oriented society, which glancing at a Serbian dictionary and the richness of
The traditional dance is a circle dance called kolo, which is common among Serbs, Montenegrins and Macedonians. It is a collective dance, where a group of people (usually several dozen, at the very least three) hold each other by the hands or around the waist dancing, forming a circle (hence the name), semicircle or spiral. It is called Oro in Montenegro. Similar circle dances also exist in other cultures of the region.
The Serbian Orthodox Church uses the traditional
Christmas Day itself is celebrated with a feast, necessarily featuring
Unlike in the West, Christmas is not associated with presents, although it is the day of
On
Another related feature, often lamented by Serbs themselves, is disunity and discord; as Slobodan Naumović puts it, "Disunity and discord have acquired in the Serbian popular imaginary a notorious, quasi-demiurgic status. They are often perceived as being the chief malefactors in Serbian history, causing political or military defeats, and threatening to tear Serbian society completely apart." That disunity is often quoted as the source of Serbian historic tragedies, from the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 to
Humour
Serbian has a long tradition of humour and popular jokes. The most common type of humour is
Visual arts
There was some resumption of artistic endeavour after the restoration of the Serbian patriarch in 1557.
A Baroque church 'Our Lady of the Rocks' on an island in the
There was somewhat of a resurgence in Serbian art in the 19th century as Serbia gradually regained its autonomy. Prince
Kirilo Kutlik set up the first school of art in Serbia in 1895. Many of his students went to study in Western Europe, especially France and Germany, and brought back avant-garde styles. Fauvism influenced Nadežda Petrović, while Sava Šumanović worked in Cubism.
After World War I, the Belgrade School of Painting developed in the capital with some members such as Milan Konjović working in a Fauvist manner, while others such as Marko Čelebonović worked in a style called Intimisme based on the use of colours.
The most famous Serbian painters were
Performing arts
Music
Serbian music dates from the medieval period with strong church and folk traditions. Church music in Serbia of the time was based on the Osmoglasnik a cycle of religious songs based on the resurrection and lasting for eight weeks. During the Nemanjić dynasty and under other rulers such as Stefan Dušan, musicians enjoyed royal patronage. There was a strong folk tradition in Serbia dating from this time.
During Ottoman rule, Serbs were forbidden to own property, to learn to read and write and denied the use of musical instruments. Church music had to be performed in private. The gusle, a one-stringed instrument, was used by Serbian peasants during this time in an effort to find a loophole through the stringent Ottoman laws. Filip Višnjić was a particularly notable guslar (gusle player). In the 18th century, Russian and Greek chant schools were established and the Serbian Orthodox Church accepted Church Slavonic into their liturgy.
Folk music enjoyed a resurgence in the 19th century.
Traditional Serbian folk music remains popular today, especially in rural areas. Western rock and pop music has become increasingly popular, mainly in cities with rock acts such as Riblja Čorba and Đorđe Balašević incorporating political statements in their music. Turbo-folk combines Western rock and pop styles with traditional folk music vocals. Serbian immigrants have taken their musical traditions to nations such as the US and Canada.
Several notable composers used motifs from Serbian folk music and composed works inspired by Serbian history or culture, such as Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt, Arthur Rubinstein, Antonín Dvořák, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Schubert, Hans Huber and other.[25]
Theatre and cinema
Serbia has a well-established theatrical tradition with many theatres. The Serbian National Theatre was established in 1861.[26] The company started performing opera at the end of the 19th century and the permanent opera was established in 1947. It established a ballet company.
Cinema was established reasonably early in Serbia, with 12 feature films being produced before the start of World War II. The most notable of the prewar films is Mihailo Popovic's The Battle of Kosovo in 1939.
Cinema prospered after World War II. The most notable postwar director is
Serbian cinema continued to make progress in the 1990s and today, despite the turmoil of the 1990s. Emir Kusturica won two Golden Palms for Best Feature Film at the Cannes Film Festival, for When Father Was Away on Business in 1985 and then again for Underground in 1995. In 1998, Kusturica won a Silver Lion for directing Black Cat, White Cat.[28]
Serbian handcrafts
Serbia has a long tradition of handicrafts.
The Slavs introduced jewellery making to Serbia in the 6th century AD. Metalworking started to develop on a significant scale following the development of a Serbian state. Workshops were set up in towns, large estates and in monasteries. The Studenica Monastery was known for the quality of its goldsmithing. Coins were minted not only by the kings but some of the wealthier nobility. The nobility was influenced by the wealth of the Byzantine court. Metalworking like many other arts and crafts went into decline following the Ottoman conquest. However, there was a partial revival in later centuries with a strong Baroque influence notably, the 17th century silverware at Our Lady of the Rocks on Boka Kotorska.
Media
As of 2001, there were 27 daily newspapers and 580 other newspapers published in Serbia. Some of them have Internet editions. Politika founded in 1904 is the oldest daily newspaper in the Balkans.[30] There were also 491 periodical magazines published in Serbia[31] with the Nedeljne informativne novine (NIN) and Vreme amongst the notable ones. The state exerts its influence on some daily publications such as Večernje novosti and Politika.[32]
Television broadcasting started in 1958 with every country in the former Yugoslavia having its own station. In Serbia, the state television station was known as RTB and became known as
There was some private broadcasting with the
Sport
Serbia is very successful in many sports. Among the most popular sports are
The two most popular football clubs in Serbia are Red Star Belgrade and FK Partizan. Their supporters are the Delije and the Grobari, respectively. The Serbia national football team participated in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
In basketball, Serbian clubs are successful and participate regularly in European competitions, where they often make quarter-final and semi-final appearances. The
Serbian men's and women's teams are also World Champions in sports, such as water polo and volleyball.
Serbian tennis players have been successful. Novak Djokovic is the current World No. 1, and he has won nineteen Grand Slam Singles titles so far.[33] Janko Tipsarević, Viktor Troicki, Jelena Janković and Ana Ivanovic are also successful. The Serbia Davis Cup team won the 2010 Davis Cup Final held in the Belgrade Arena.
Cultural institutions
At the beginning of the 21st century, there were 32 art galleries and 142 museums in Serbia.
There is a network of libraries with three national libraries, 689 public libraries, 143 higher education libraries and 11 non-specialised libraries as of 1998. The National Library of Serbia is the most significant of these. Project Rastko, founded in 1997, is an Internet library of Serb culture.[35]
The roots of the Serbian education system date back to the 11th and 12th centuries when the first
Within the Government of Serbia, the Serbian Ministry for Culture is responsible for administering its cultural facilities.
National symbols
- The tricolour.
- The two-headed eagle, which represents dual power and sovereignty (monarch and church), was the coat of arms of the Nemanjić dynasty.
- The Serbian cross is based on the Byzantine cross, but where the Byzantine Cross held four Greek letter 'V' (or 'B') meaning King of Kings, ruling over Kings,[37] the Serbian cross turned the Byzantine "B" into four Cyrillic letters of 'S' (C) with little stylistic modification, for a whole new message (traditionally rendered as Samo sloga Srbina spasava—Only Unity Saves the Serbs). If displayed on a field, traditionally it is on a red field, but could be used with no field at all.
Both the eagle and the cross, besides being the basis for various Serbian coats of arms through history, are the basis for the symbols of various Serbian organisations, political parties, institutions and companies.
Serbian folk attire varies, mostly because of the very diverse geography and climate of the territory inhabited by the Serbs. Some parts of it are, however, common:
- A traditional shoe that is called the opanak. It is recognisable by its distinctive tips that spiral backward. Each region of Serbia has a different kind of tips.
- A traditional hat that is called the Bosnian Serb military commanders during the Bosnian War in the 1990s. However, the šajkača is common mostly for the Serbian population living in the region of Central Serbia (Šumadija), while Serbs living in Vojvodina, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatiahad different types of traditional hats, which are not similar to šajkača. Different types of traditional hats could also be found in eastern and southern parts of Central Serbia.
See also
- Architecture of Serbia
- Cultural Heritage of Serbia
- Serbian literature
- Serbian printing
- Tourism in Serbia
References
- ISBN 978-1-4939-1492-0.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4982-4377-3.
- ^ "Serbian Orthodox Church Leaders Meet to Elect New Patriarch". rferl.org. RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. 22 January 2010.
- ISBN 978-1-1375-9990-2.
- ISBN 978-9-0272-9351-0.
- ISBN 978-1-1071-8074-1.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4381-2252-6.
- ISSN 0550-4317.
- ^ Antonić, Dragomir (23 July 2006). Царство за гибаницу. Politika 33300 (in Serbian). Politika. p. 11.
- ^ "Brandy history Rakia Bar". www.rakiabar.com. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
- ^ "Stevo Karapanža: Obožavam južnjački prebranac". Južne vesti (in Serbian). Retrieved 13 January 2020.
- ^ Tamara Sheward (October 2014). "Europe's Foodie Secret". Lonely Planet. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-521-22315-7.
- ^ Cox 2002, p. 20.
- ^ "Dictionary of the Khazars - Милорад Павић". www.khazars.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-3133-443-7-4.
- ^ a b Andric, Gordana (6 January 2014). "Celebrate Christmas, Serbian Style". BalkanInsight.
- ^ Slobodan Naumović (2005). "The social origins and political uses of popular narratives on Serbian disunity" (PDF). Filozofija i Društvo (26): 65–104. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
- ^ Branko Radun (10 March 2007). "Dve zadušnice za "dve Srbije"". Nova srpska politička misao. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
- ^ Krojac. "Suveniri Srbije – Suvenir Lala". www.suvenirisrbije.com.
- ^ Serbia, RTS, Radio televizija Srbije, Radio Television of. ""Pokuda škrtosti" o Piroćancima". rts.rs. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ ISBN 978-0-3133-4436-7.
- ^ Cox 2002, p. 121.
- ^ "Serbian ballad wins at Eurovision". BBC. BBC News. 12 May 2007.
- ISBN 978-86-6195-173-2.
- ^ "Serbian National Theater History". snp.org.rs. Serbian National Theater.
- ISBN 978-0-2532-1256-6.
- ^ "Emir Kusturica". Festival De Cannes.
- ISBN 978-8-6754-7039-7.
- ISBN 978-0-4721-3133-4.
- ISBN 978-1-8574-3414-9.
- ^ Rankovic, Larisa. "Media in Serbia". Media Landscapes.
- ^ "2021 Men's Tennis ATP rankings". espn.com. Archived from the original on 6 August 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-2302-7135-7.
- ^ "[Projekat Rastko] O projektu". rastko.rs. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
- ^ "University of Belgrade the World University Rankings". timeshighereducation.com. Archived from the original on 21 September 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
- ^ "Byzantine Empire". www.crwflags.com.
Further reading
- Cox, John K. (2002). The History of Serbia. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-3133-1290-8.
- ISBN 9781405142915.
- Đorđević, Miloš Z. (2010). "A Background to Serbian Culture and Education in the First Half of the 18th Century according to Serbian Historiographical Sources". Empires and Peninsulas: Southeastern Europe between Karlowitz and the Peace of Adrianople, 1699–1829. Berlin: LIT Verlag. pp. 125–131. ISBN 9783643106117.
- Đorđević, Života; Pejić, Svetlana, eds. (1999). Cultural Heritage of Kosovo and Metohija. Belgrade: Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the Republic of Serbia. ISBN 9788680879161.
- Gavrilović, Zaga (2001). Studies in Byzantine and Serbian Medieval Art. London: The Pindar Press. ISBN 9781899828340.
- Isailović, Neven G.; Krstić, Aleksandar R. (2015). "Serbian Language and Cyrillic Script as a Means of Diplomatic Literacy in South Eastern Europe in 15th and 16th Centuries". Literacy Experiences concerning Medieval and Early Modern Transylvania. Cluj-Napoca: George Bariţiu Institute of History. pp. 185–195.
- ISBN 9781870732314.
- Janićijević, Jovan, ed. (1990). Serbian Culture Through Centuries: Selected List of Recommended Reading. Belgrade: Yugoslav Authors' Agency.
- Janićijević, Jovan, ed. (1998). The Cultural Treasury of Serbia. Belgrade: Idea, Vojnoizdavački zavod, Markt system. ISBN 9788675470397.
- Krstić, Branislav (2003). Saving the Cultural Heritage of Serbia and Europe in Kosovo and Metohia. Belgrade: Coordination Center of the Federal Government and the Government of the Republic of Serbia for Kosovo and Metohia. ISBN 9788675560173.
- Mihailovich, Vasa D., ed. (1983). Landmarks in Serbian Culture and History: Essays. Pittsburgh: Serb National Federation.
- ISBN 9781850654773.
- Peić, Sava (1994). Medieval Serbian Culture. London: Alpine Fine Arts Collection.
- Petković, Vesna; Peić, Sava (2013). Serbian Medieval Cultural Heritage. Belgrade: Dereta.
- ISBN 9788675830153.
- Subotić, Gojko (1998). Art of Kosovo: The Sacred Land. New York: The Monacelli Press. ISBN 9781580930062.
- Todić, Branislav (1999). Serbian Medieval Painting: The Age of King Milutin. Belgrade: Draganić. ISBN 9788644102717.
- Todorović, Jelena (2006). An Orthodox Festival Book in the Habsburg Empire: Zaharija Orfelin's Festive Greeting to Mojsej Putnik (1757). Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 9780754656111.
- Trgovčević, Ljubinka (2007). "The Enlightenment and the Beginnings of Modern Serbian Culture" (PDF). Balcanica (2006): 103–110.
External links
Online references
- Serbia Ministry of Culture
- The Christian heritage of Kosovo and Metohija - The historical and spiritual heartland of the Serbian people
- Radio Television Serbia (in Serbian)
- European Federation of Journalists Serbia page
- Serbian info culture page
- Serbian info Art History page
- Encarta Yugoslavia article
- Encarta Yugoslav literature page
- Serbian medieval literature history
- Columbia University Yugoslav Literature article
- Treasures National Library Serbia
- Project Rastko (1995): The History of Serbian Culture
Other references
- "Serbia and Montenegro", Encyclopædia Britannica, 2005
- "Serbia", Grove Art Online, 2005
- "Serbia", Grove Music Online, 2005
- The Statesman's Yearbook 2005: The Politics, Cultures and Economies of the World, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, ISBN 1-4039-1481-8