Tradition may be seen as the offshoot of religious belief, while custom, if practiced for a long time, eventually becomes law. Even established traditions should not be taken at face value; one must be on guard to see that the offshoot does not strangle the tree from which it came into existence. A healthy tradition is one that supports and enhances its basis of faith. This is the tradition we must continue to nurse and develop.

Custom may also be seen as an expression or symbol of a highly meaningful substance. Here again the same may be said, for there is a strong possibility that the custom could replace the substance. For example, there are many people who practice making the sign of the Cross simply as a mannerism, without ever thinking about the meaning associated with the Cross itself. Such mannerisms of prayer cannot stand for prayer itself.

The customs and traditions which serve life, contribute to it, and build it, are the institutions which should be maintained and upheld. The culture of a people can be seen and understood as the flower on the branches of that peoples’particular tradition. It is that “flower” which distinguishes that certain group of people from among all others. That kind of tradition has registered itself for the posterity of that people, and as such becomes the treasure which is guarded and transferred to the generations to come.

In the life of the contemporary world, whether that of large or small nations, one often hears the word “democracy” in regard to political life. Democracy is a product of Hellenic culture, as the Greek words that make up our word indicate: demos, “the

people,” and kratos, “power” or “rule.” Thus democracy means “the rule of the people.” This principle became one of the beams upon which present civilization rests, bequeathed to us by the tradition of ancient Athen’s political life.

As far as our faith is concerned, Holy Tradition stands next only to Divine illumination and inspiration. Besides the Holy Cross and the Holy Icons, there are many other practices in the life of the Church which are part of Holy Tradition. In fact, devoid of Holy Tradition church life itself becomes divorced from the true Church itself. As far as the political concept of democracy is concerned, one may conclude that this concept, where the personality of man is given full place within society, rests upon the reality of life itself. The uniqueness and irreplaceability of human personality becomes the foundation of democracy.

Church Tradition is a confirmation of the message of the Four Gospels as well as the rest of our biblical beliefs. Here God is the Creator of the world, and a creative center, while man is created in the image of God. Nothing in the world is created in the image of God except man; therefore, the personality of man is a creative agent in the world, and as such remains above the world. All customs and traditions are tailored accordingly.

Ancient peoples such as Jews and Greeks guarded their customs and traditions because they had proven to be a positive force in their lives throughout the millennia of their existence. Their customs and traditions not only served to identify them, but became synonymous with their very names.

Besides its Tradition and customs, the Serbian people has its religious as well as national holidays. The whole of our life as a people is closely connected with these holidays. Renouncing or forgetting these days would be tantamount to renouncing one’s ethnicity. All of this testifies to one thing, namely, that this way of life did not originate with our generation or with those some few generations before us; neither will it end with our generation. If nothing else, the positive customs and traditions which developed in the life of a people throughout history proves this point. On the other side, if it happens that a people begins to doubt the value of its customs and traditions and begins to divorce itself from them, it signals through its history a crisis in the life of that people.

In a broader sense of custom and tradition, one can also include language, alphabet, and even history itself. A person who leaves his country and people will miss the presence of his or her language and, in our case, alphabet. After that follow the national holidays, and then the family religious ones. One may also include here the tradition of personal names which are typically Serbian: male names like Mile, Rade, Bosko, and Mirko; female names like Dusanka, Zorka, Radojka, Smilja, and so on. Together with this are the many small but important customs we grew up with. We hardly noticed them white we were at home, but now that we are away we miss them. The Serbian people do not necessarily celebrate their personal birthdays; instead we celebrate Krsno Ime, or Krsna Slava. The Slava is a unique holiday of the Serbian people; it is both a religious and an ethnic institution, with its beginning at the time long ago when Serbs accepted the Christian faith.

The Tannenbaum, or Christmas tree, of German origin, became universal as far as western civilization is concerned, but we still prefer our Serbian Badnjak.

Vidov Dan is the most important of Serbian national holidays. It is a holiday which holds all the content of Serbian history, preserving our past, present and future. Then there are the traditions and customs surrounding the festivities of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. Finally, let us also not forget Djurdjevdanski Uranak.

For the Serbian people of the diaspora living today in all the major countries of the world, the Serbian Orthodox Church is the central place where Serbs may celebrate their holidays, thus preserving their faith, customs, and traditions.

Traditional architecture among the Serbs is based on the experience of centuries. In a relatively small area several types of house are found which have different means of construction. The spontaneous deliberateness, creative imagination and the inventiveness of self-taught builders among the people resulted in residences which were exceptionally suitable for life, work and the environment. This was manifested not only in the appearance and floor plan of village homes and their accompanying buildings, but also in all the other external and internal functional and artistically formed elements and details.

The Old Village Museum, with structures of traditional architecture in the Zlatibor region, Sirogojno

In building residences, traditional builders estimated the climatic conditions and the nature of the soil with remarkable skill. By using materials found in the surroundings, they created architectural styles which were specific to a given region. The financial situation often had a certain significance in these efforts, as did the professions and life of the residents, and the trends which came along from various cultural spheres in the flow of historical events.

Thus, starting with the southwest and south and moving toward the northern territories, one crosses regional belts of houses built in various forms, with a variety of techniques, based on traditional architectural experience and skill. In the bare karst regions – such as those in the northern Dalmatian areas near Knin, eastern Herzegovina, part of Montenegro, and along the Montenegrin coastline itself – houses are built of stone, most often with a roof of stone roof decking as well. In the mountainous and heavily forested Dinaric region – from the western part of the Serbian Krajina and Bosnia across the eastern slopes of Montenegro and almost all of western Serbia – a kind of log-cabin is most widespread, with walls made of logs and a high wood-shingled roof. In the third large region which is not heavily forested – the southern, central and eastern parts of Serbia – a combined system of construction is common. Houses have a wooden skeleton which is filled with light materials and mud. This is the “bondruk” (the “post and petrail”) type home, which is also called the “Morava type house” because it is so common in the Morava basin. In the north, on the Pannonian plains – Vojvodina, Baranja, and part of Slavonia – where the soil is most malleable, houses are built of tightly packed mud and straw, or of unbaked bricks. For all of these types of house, with significant differences in their external appearance, two rooms are characteristic inside the older homes – the “house” with its hearth and room, which is sometimes fronted by a porch. In the area outside each home, there are structures for the agricultural and other needs of the householders.

Wooden door from a log-cabin house, Cajetina on Zlatibor, mid-nineteenth century

In their development, all the basic types of house became more complex in their arrangement and outlook, and certain new types of building materials were used. In the architectural interventions among most of the more highly developed types of home with their farmsteads, spontaneous creativity and individuality continued to be noticed, which is not completely true of earthen houses. With the imposition of governmentally proscribed plans, the houses of Vojvodina and the basins of the Danube and Sava, even apart from their local specificity, took on a more universal appearance, in many ways, from the end of the eighteenth century onward; that appearance is characteristic of the entire Pannonian plain in central Europe.

Pannonian house,Backa,Vojvodina, beginning of the twentieth century.

However, in both the basic types of houses and the more highly developed forms, apart from the organic ties of each structure with nature, the ratios between the individual parts of the home are established unerringly, through the decoration of the house itself and other structures; the individual and common elements were given form both decoratively and aesthetically. Since the house was a place where the entire social, productive and ritual life cycle was carried out, there was a need to fill it out and beautify it with profiled construction supports, beautifully built chimneys, windows and door frames. Thus, in the Pannonian house, with its light-coloured facade, special attention is paid to the look of the gables, often with a solar motif, and the log cabin has a decorated arched log above the door sill. In the picturesque, characteristic look of the Morava home, which attracted the attention of Le Corbusier as he traveled across eastern Serbia (on the way to the Orient in 1911), light-coloured vaults dominate � arches in the porch area which harmoniously converge into the natural green ambient.

Morava house with porch, the valley of the Great Morava, second half of the ninetenth century.

Traditional architecture, which had specific forms in various types of nature and which were influenced by historical, economic and cultural factors, came to the end of its evolutionary cycle several decades ago. Its architectonic value is undoubtedly great. Together with the other forms of traditional creativity, it represents the cultural heritage of the Serbian nation and for European culture as a whole. As the great visionary and planner of twentieth century architecture, the famous Le Corbusier, said “Tradition is an arrow which points to the future”. As he traveled what was once the Byzantine empire, he tried to discover the secrets of its past, so that he could understand the West.

Among the creative aspects of the culture of the Serbian nation, traditional costumes occupy one of the most important places because of their role in everyday life, their significance for ethnic identity, and their value artistically and aesthetically. They are known mostly because of the costumes which have been saved from the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, characterised by a great diversity in form and decoration. This variety and richness is present in both men’s and women’s costumes. Each region had its own special form of dress. According to the way a person was dressed, one could distinguish not only where they were from, but also of which nationality they were in multi-ethnic milieus. Various national costumes with manifold significance among the people were exposed to a wide range of influences in the history of their development. Thus, they incorporated a variety of elements from preceding periods, together with the features of the period when they were made and worn.

Serbian urban dress, Belgrade, mid-nineteenth century.
Ethnographic Museum, Belgrade.

In the wide variety of costumes, apart from the special traits of costumes which varied from village to village, there were also other differences between villagers and urban dwellers in terms of the way they dressed. Urban clothing in most of the Serbian ethnic territories developed under Turkish and oriental influences. Later, as in Pannonia and along the Adriatic, that influence was largely European. Urban costumes in the Balkan-Oriental style, made of expensive cloths and bearing gold and silver embroidery, were of high artisan craftsmanship. Up to the twentieth century, on the other hand, peasant dress was mostly the product of home and other village handwork. They were fashioned by women, though certain parts of the costumes were done by village artisans. Experience and tradition were passed from elder to younger, from generation to generation.

The very first glance at the diversity of village dress reveals certain specificities in the combination of the functional, artistic and aesthetic characteristics of the clothes worn in an entire region. Identical or similar economic circumstances, brought on by the geographical setting, by historical, social and cultural development, all influenced the generation of certain elements of clothing in the framework of larger cultural and geographic regions, such as those in the Dinaric, Adriatic, central Balkan and Pannonian regions. In each region a basic type of dress is characteristic, appearing in many different costuming and decorative forms. The differences originated in the variety of materials for making and decorating which the particular region offered, the pattern-forms and decorative means, and the costuming tradition and level of cultural development.

Women’s village dress, viewed from the back, Imljani, western Bosnia, second half of the nineteenth century.
Ethnographic Museum, Belgrade.

The dress of the Dinaric mountain region includes the territories of Serbian Krajina – Kordun, Lika and northern Dalmatia, along with a large part of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the continental part of Montenegro, and the southwestern regions of Serbia. In that vast mountainous region, cattle and sheep breeding was the main source of income, and the entire lifestyle of the people was adapted to that end. Folk dress was mostly made of wool. After weaving, the woollen homespun cloth was taken to special mills (valjavica) which were once in abundance along the smaller rivers. The processed cloth, a rough fabric, was a natural white or brown colour in some areas, while in other regions it was dyed black, dark blue or red. Many items of clothing where made of homespun wool and heavy cloth, in whose strictest forms one can see old Balkan and Turkish-Oriental elements. The basic element of both women’s and men’s dress was a hemp or linen shirt in the form of a tunic with sleeves, abundantly decorated with embroidery done in yarn.

Zubun, a sleeveless dress for women, Janj, western Bosnia, second half of the nineteenth century.
Ethnographic Museum, Belgrade.

Indispensable parts in the woman’s outfit were a woven woollen belt and apron, harmonious in motif and colour, worn over a long shirt. The most common forms of heavy cloth articles of clothing were the “zubun”, “sadak” or “koret” – kinds of long bodices. They were joined by dresses with sleeves, decorated with embroidery and coloured appliqu�s done in fabric. Girls’heads were adorned with red caps, and married women covered these caps with scarfs folded in various ways. In men’s clothing, narrow trousers were common, and in some areas roomy “pelengirs” with flared legs were characteristic – they are very ancient forms of clothing. They were accompanied by vests with straight and overlapping halves (gunjic, zubun, jecerma, dzemadan) and short overcoats with sleeves (known as gunj, gunja, koporan, aljina). A multi-coloured woven belt was indispensable, as was a red cap, which was wrapped with a woollen scarf in the winter in many areas.

Decorations, richly applied to men’s and especially women’s dress, were characterised by harmony in their ornamentation and colour schemes. The delicate colours of the yarns in weaving, achieved through the traditional process of dying with herbal dyes, contributed greatly to the highly refined harmony in colour. In the ornamentation of the rich multi-coloured embroidery and in the appliques of homespun and other decorations, which cover practically all visible surfaces on articles of clothing, and equally so in woven fabrics, geometric and geometrized vegetative motifs prevailed. In creating decorative and aesthetic elements, various kinds of silver embellishments played an important role in woollen Dinaric clothing. These embellishments amplified the heavy monumental form of the clothing. One of the most significant forms were men’s “toke” for the chest, made up of several silver plates or studs, which were often gilded. They were a symbol of heroism, and weapons were worn along with them. The weapons were of high quality craftsmanship, tucked into a special pocket of a wide leather belt.

A belt – “cemer”, an essential part of women’s festive attire, Montenegro, end of the nineteenth century.
Ethnographic Museum, Belgrade.

Traditional costumes of the Adriatic regions covered a significantly smaller area when compared to the expanses of the Dinaric massif. The narrow strip along the Montenegrin coastline and Bay of Boka Kotorska developed under the conditions of Mediterranean commerce and culture, while maintaining constant contact with the mountain hinterlands. Thus, Mediterranean and urban European elements in clothing are encountered, mixed together with the Dinaric elements of the mountain hinterlands.

Home-made linen fabric was used for making the costumes, along with hemp and cotton. Likewise, woollen fabrics such as homespun and coarse wool were used. Apart from home-made materials, factory made materials were also used (especially for festive attire), including fabrics, velour, brocade and silk. Along with expensive materials, sailors brought various kinds of valuables and fashionable items (parasols, fans, and so on) to their families during the height of maritime activities, especially during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Apart from coloured embroidery and braids, white embroidery and fine lace were also common. Gold and silver jewelry, items of fine workmanship, complemented the refined simplicity of coastal costumes. The visual specificity of those costumes was the colour scheme, set in two or three colours, at times in combinations of several colours.

In women’s attire, an outer dress in the form of a long faulted skirt with a bodice sewn on was common. Individual variants differed in the kind and colour of the fabric, accompanied by differing names. Over-shirts with lace inserts and skirts (“sarca”, “raca”, “kamicot”), a woollen or silken belt were worn, and an apron was added. Sleeveless dresses and light overcoats were also worn. The head was wrapped in a scarf, and in some areas flat caps were worn. In men’s attire, caps also had thin brims; the caps were made of waterproof cloth and covered with silk. The remaining parts of the costumes were shirts with decorative inserts, wide faulted pants, a belt, a vest (“jecerma”), and overcoats with long sleeves. Some of the most important decorations were braided appliques, and a leather girder (cemer) around the belt, into which two pistols were slipped, made in domestic gunsmith shops.

The chest adornment of men’s village attire, Kninska krajina, nineteenth century.
Ethnographic Museum, Belgrade.

In the coastal oases, the Dinaric touch was seen in the adaptation of traits of hinterland clothing, tamed for the coastal areas.

The attire of the central Balkans was found in the southern and central regions of Serbia, with the communications hub in the Morava Valley, and in part of Kosovo and Metohia, as well as in parts of Raska. In this region, the mountains and flatlands alternate, and the costumes are a combination of elements of attire worn by farmers and herdsmen, with traces of the Greek, ancient Balkan, Byzantine and medieval Serbian and Turkish-Oriental elements of dress.

Women’s village dress, parts of the blouse sleeves, bodice, belt and short “bojce” skirt – Kosovo polje, region of Kosovo-Metohia, nineteenth century.
Ethnographic Museum, Belgrade.

In many variants of the basic costume style, especially varied in women’s attire, men characteristically wore homespun white and brown jackets. A specific form of decoration were appliqu�s of black and dark blue woollen yarn. In women’s attire, with numerous characteristics of an elongated visual form, one notices a remarkable wealth of forms, materials, embroideries, appliques with a variety of decorations, and harmoniously composed geometric and vegetational motifs and colours. The frequent usage of red in combinations with other colours, as well as with gold and silver threads, contributed to the great liveliness of these materials. The basic element of attire was the straight cut blouse, with richly embroidered sleeves, breast and bottom hem. The embroidery was done with wool, cotton and sterling silver thread on a hemp, linen or cotton base. The other characteristic piece of clothing was the wool or cotton skirt, open full-length, which had different lengths, decorations, colours and names from region to region. The elegant, single-coloured “bojca” from Kosovo with its dainty embroidery, as well as the fine, multi-coloured “futa”, “bokca” and “zaprega” of other regions, with stripes and fine woven geometric designs, all fit in harmoniously with the whiteness of certain kinds of long linen blouses. Likewise, the other pieces, and especially the “zubun” (a long hemp waistcoat with a floral design), represent the accomplishments of folk handicrafts and their high artistic value.

Women’s village attire, view from the back, Sava river basin near Belgrade,
turn of the twentieth century.
Ethnographic Museum, Belgrade

The special head-wear of women should be added to these elements. Various kinds of pins were put in the hair, which was then covered with cloths and covers in the form of caps and veils. The embroidery, ornaments and some of the tailoring, along with a variety of fixings – earrings, hairpins, necklaces and rings – are reminiscent of the costumes and jewelry of the Serbian Middle Ages.

Embroidery on the sleeve of a woman’s blouse, Kosovo polje, Kosovo-Metohia region, nineteenth century.
Ethnographic Museum, Belgrade

The attire of Pannonia, a predominantly lowland region, was found over the central parts of Serbia, in Vojvodina, Baranja, Slavonia, and along the Sava in Bosnia, where a significant portion of the population was Serbian. Along the southern border, elements of central Balkan and Dinaric attire are intermixed, and in the remaining regions one finds central European influences and styles, especially the Baroque. Likewise, from the mid-nineteenth century onward, the urban fashion of western and central Europe was also quite influential. Old Slavonic elements were also quite significant, and they were best preserved in these regions.

The Pannonian plain, with its complex cultural interactions, its fertile soil and its abundance of grain and other produce, ensured the inhabitants economic security which was expressed in all areas of life. In attire, that security contributed to the boisterous variety and vividness of the forms, decorations and colours. Finely faulted rough woven attire, worn both summer and winter, is both light and lively. Vegetational motifs are frequent, as is gold embroidery, and the colours are generally bright.

A golden cap, part of women’s festive attire, Banat, Vojvodina, second half of the nineteenth century.
Ethnographic Museum, Belgrade

The long one-piece roughly woven faulted blouse is prominent in women’s attire. It bears woven decoration or embroidery in one or more colours. The two-piece blouse is decorated in a similar way, although the lower part is worn in several layers. Along with linen cloth skirts, woollen skirts were common as well, with wide or narrow faults. A belt and apron were worn over the linen clothing, and in some regions two aprons were worn — one in front and one in back. Beside the wide use of floral motifs and woven geometric ornamentation, the head-wear was also specific in nature — specially woven cloths, scarfs folded into caps, and brides and young women wore crowns of flowers and gold embroidered caps. Menswear of linen consisted of “rubine” (shirts and trousers), worn in the Pannonian way (the shirt was not tucked into the trousers). Decoration of the menswear was as prominent as that of the women’s attire. Among the various floral designs, the motif of the shock of wheat done in gold embroidery was distinctive as a symbol of fertility.

In winter, both women’s and men’s attire was complemented by articles of clothing made of heavy cloth and fur. On white, dark and brown cloth, motifs took the form of cut shapes of cloth and homespun sewn in, and leather motifs were sewn onto leather. These stitched-in forms in combination with bright-coloured embroidery contributed to the liveliness of vests, peasant jackets, cloaks and sheepskin coats.

As a whole, all these types of traditional costume are characterised by uniqueness in creativity and appearance, considering the wide variety of styles in mountainous, coastal, hilly and plains regions, each with its specific conditions for folk life and folk culture. Based on the age-old experience of the people and on their needs and know-how, this tradition was manifested in the visual harmony of basic constructive elements which were created by the harmonious uniformity and placement of the ornamental compositions. In their artistic character and aesthetic value, the traditional costumes of the Serbs in the nineteenth century and early decades of the twentieth century are at the very pinnacle of traditional forms of the collective folk spirit, not only in this milieu but even far beyond it.

Kabanica, an outer garment with short, closed sleeves in which shepherds carried food and other things instead of in a bag; Srem, Vojvodina, nineteenth century.
Ethnographic Museum, Belgrade

From the end of the nineteenth century onward, when the traditional means of dress gave up their place to the urban attire of Europe, traditional costumes essentially became a thing of cultural-historical value. Thereafter, they were worn in daily life only on special occasions, in certain closed milieus or on certain festive occasions.