Slava, celebration of family saint patron’s day

Most Orthodox Christian families across Serbia practice the Slava in honor of their patron saint, who is believed to be their protector and provider of welfare.
Celebration of the Slava consists of a ritual making of a bloodless sacrifice and a feast which brings together family, friends, neighbors… On this day, the family lights the slava candle, reads prayers and cuts a special ritual bread known as slavski kolač. This ritual bread, imprinted with the Cyrillic equivalents of the letters IS HS NI KA (Greek abbreviation for “Jesus Christ Victor”), is soaked in wine, cut in the shape of a cross and then broken four ways and hoisted, accompanied by words of gratitude to the patron saint and prayers for wellbeing.
Bread, boiled wheat and wine symbolise the blood and body of Christ, but they also stand for fertility and wellbeing. Some families take their ritual bread to church on the day of their Slava or invite a priest to their home to cut the bread.
In addition to its symbolism, the Slava also plays a cohesive role, as it brings together families, relatives and the community. Although associated with the Serbian ethnic community, the Slava as an expression of ethnic identity is also practiced by families of other ethnicities in Serbia.

Kolo, traditional folk dance

Kolo, a traditional Serbian folk dance, is seen as a distinguishing feature of Serbian national identity. Virtually everyone in Serbia knows this dance, as it is shared by other ethnic and religious communities as well.
To start a kolo, several dancers join hands and interlink in a semi-circular, circular or winding shape, performing rhythmical steps. The dance is always accompanied by fast-paced music played on a pipe, bagpipes, accordion, trumpet or, more recently, an electric organ.
The first dancer in a kolo, called kolovođa (ringleader), dictates the pace of the dance.
You can join a kolo at any time by joining hands with those who are already interlocked in the dance. This makes the dance ideal for establishing connections and bonding between people, helping them forge a sense of community.

Fiddle singing

Fiddle singing, solo decasyllabic singing of folk epic songs, forms part of the Serbian “living heritage”, which is passed down from generation to generation, as a very important feature of the community’s identity. Fiddling, as an archaic form of folk art that promotes the highest ethical values, the importance of family relations and community homogeneity is a combination of collective historical memory and traditional musical skills. Fiddle singing is present on the territory of Serbia, as a part of performing arts and oral tradition.

Zlakusa pottery

Zlakusa pottery, hand-wheel pottery making in the village of Zlakusa in Western Serbia is a skill related to traditional craftsmanship which has been present in generations in the families in Zlakusa. Along with the use of a hand-wheel, the specific feature of this type of pottery is the material from which it is made – a mixture of clay and ground mineral calcite obtained from local sites in the villages of this region. The traditional forms of the Zlakusa pottery are pots of different shapes and sizes, from 1 to 100 litres, used mainly for cooking and baking food.

Social practices and knowledge about the preparation and use of the traditional Serbian plum drink - slivovitz

Almost all regions in Serbia have slivovitz. You can find it at festivities, family and collective gatherings and it is an inevitable companion in toasts for health and well-being.

Social practices and knowledge about the preparation and use of the traditional Serbian plum drink, slivovitz, form a set of knowledge and skills required for the preparation of the traditional drink, plum brandy, in households and its use in everyday practice and rituals. It also includes the knowledge required to grow specific plum varieties, traditional food and the crafts and skills required to produce useful items that form an integral part of this culture, such as the coppersmith and coopery items, wooden flasks and others. This brandy is also used in traditional medicine. People often add medicinal herbs or fruits to it to make herbal spirit (“travarica”) with varying flavours and properties.

Kovačica naïve painting

Kovačica naive painting involved the knowledge and skills of painters belonging to the Slovak ethnic community in Serbia, primarily in Kovačica. Self-taught painters influenced by folk creativity paint pictures and items with motifs of folk life, rural areas and everyday life, but also reflect the relationship of the individual and the community towards nature and society.

Kovačica painting abounds in nostalgic and idyllic themes that reflect the past, street life, country yards, work in the fields, and depictions of country rooms with old rugs and items, all the way to portraits and still life.

Old-generation painters use rural and folk tradition motifs more, while younger artists, under the influence of life in more urban areas, rely on more modern motifs in their paintings.

However, in spite of similar themes, all the painters bring uniqueness into their motifs or artistic expression, making their paintings and works of art original and recognisable.