Traditions
Stecci
Cultural symbols of Bosnia and Herzegovina are the Old Mostar Bridge and stone tombstones /stecci/. One of unique cultural spots of Bosnia and Herzegovina and surrounding Balkan countries are surely stećci /tomb stones/, horizontal slabs pseudo-sarcophagi and upright standing slabs and crosses - raised on ancient graveyards throughout Serbian lands. Stećci make and present unusual, amazing, mystical and not clearly researched witnesses of ancient past that were built in the period from the end of the 13th century until the first decades of the 16th century. Stećci are unique both in the European and the world culture and neither have direct copies nor represent copies of some other monuments. Those monumental carved stone blocks - stećci densely spread on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the southern part of Croatia, Macedonia, western Montenegro and southeastern Serbia, and especially in large numbers on the territory of the Medieval Bosnia and Hum, on ancient grave yards where Serbian population lived.
Family Structure and Death Rituals
- Removing one's shoes is customary in Muslim households; the host family will provide slippers.
- The family is the focus of life and religion plays an important part in people's lives. Many Bosnians are Muslims, for whom Islam is both their religion and a way of life. In Muslim society the aged are regarded as valuable members of the family, providing a wealth of Islamic knowledge. They reinforce family values and assist in raising children.
- Mourning is a prescribed way of dealing with death and wailing is practiced.
- A cemetery burial is usual, following the tradition of the appropriate reigion.
- Islam encourages burial as soon as possible, preferably on the day of death. Cremation is forbidden.
- In the Orthodox religion, cremation is not permitted because it is believed that we are made from earth and that we shall return to the earth. Elaborate mausoleums may be used.
Religion and Hospitality
The religions of Bosnia and Herzegovina are heavily dependent on the ethnic groups of the people; for example, most Bosniaks are Muslim, most Serbs are Christian, and most Croats are Roman Catholic or atheist. Bosnians can belong to different nationalities living in Bosnia and Herzegovina like Serbs, Bosniaks, Croats and others, while in a religious sense they can be Catholics, Muslims, Jews, members of Serbian Orthodox church or atheists. Forty percent of the Bosnian people are Muslim, just over thirty percent belong to the Orthodox Church and around fifteen percent are Roman Catholic. People of Bosnia and Herzegovina are strongly regarded by their fabulous highlander traditions. Local people in Bosnia and Herzegovina will almost always be very friendly. This is common to the region of the Balkans but Bosnian hospitality is something special. Bosnian inhabitants are a much more caring culture and will go out of their way to assist you in finding something. Often they invite someone to their home for a coffee and it is considered rude to refuse an offer of a coffee, tea or drink with a homemade meal when visiting someone in their home. Once you enter someone's home as guest expect the red carpet treatment. More than likely the host will bring out sweets, baklava or tulumba. It is considered very rude to be in a hurry or in a rush so it is important to take your time while visiting with someone.
Clothing
Dinaric
The main characteristics of this group are long linen dresses tied behind with woolen embroidery in four different colors for the Serbian Orthodox inhabitants and usually two different colors for the Croatian Catholic population. Just as the dresses above show, the motifs are geometrical and not floral.. Dresses worn by the Muslim population in the Dinaric region do not usually have any embroidery. Zubun of a young female here is predominantly while, while married women wore zubuns of either black of dark blue color. In Western Bosnia unmarried Serbian girls could sometimes wear dark bluezubuns similar to those of married women. Croatian zubuns here have a little less embroidery and are usually black in color, while Herzegovina zubuns are black in the western areas and dark blue in the east. Ιn some cases of Serbian and Croatian clothing in the Dinaric region, two aprons are worn - one at the back and another one at the front. Around the waist, a red woolen belt is worn by Christians and a green belt by the Muslims, or a woolen band of material of dark red or black color. Male clothing consists of a long linen shirt of a cut similar to that of a female one. Some Serbian inhabitants of Banja Luka, Vrhovina and Drvar wore embroidered shirts, while Muslim shirts have no embroidery at all. Over the costume, just like in female costumes, male costumes could have a zubun or a sheepskin vest kozun, although the latter has been mostly worn by the Serbs. On holidays, a richly embroidered jecerma overcoat could be worn. The costume is finished with a red hat. The hats worn by the Serbs in western Bosnia are not wide and are embroidered with black embroidery around, worn mostly without the red scarf around.
Central Bosnian
The costumes of this region usually consists of a wide, ankle-long dress, pants, various types of zubun overcoats and aprons, although some have not been worn in some areas. The socks are knee high with flower ornaments, while embroidery around Sarajevo is geometrical. Black skirts appear here from the beginning of the 20th century, mostly in central and eastern Bosnia and are more popular among the Bosnian Serbs. Worn on the heads are different types of round head garments covered with a square scarf. Males wear a red 'fes' and scarves around them that differ in color depending on the religious group. Croats and Serbs cover the heads with red woolen scarves, while Muslim men cover the 'fes' with beautiful while scarves. Some inhabitants of higher income level here could be wearing clothing made from a more expensive black think fabric and embroidered with black cord mostly borrowed from town clothing and especially popular among the Muslim population in eastern Bosnia.
The Posavina Group
Posavina area has been greatly influenced by the costume of Croatian Posavina next to it. Female Croat and Serbian clothing is richly embroidered with cotton threads and flower motifs are most common here. The pattern is most similar to that worn by ancient Slavs, while this type of clothing is very common across Vojvodina, northern Serbia, Romania, Hungary and stretches as far as Ukraine and Poland. Clothing of Muslim women here, however, was little different from those worn in Central Bosnian regions. Pants were not commonly worn here, with the exception of Muslim women where they were a must. ‘Zubuns’ are mostly black, long, until the knee on the left side of Bosna river, while some areas wear ‘zubun’ similar to those Dinaric ones are worn. On the left bank, the ‘zubun’ is replaced with local variant of an overcoat, made from black “Bulgarian” fabric and richly embroidered. Male clothing are mostly characterized by wide shirts embroideries as richly as female ones, and pants, with the ones across the Sava river being very wide. It was common to see men wear a red 'fes' here until about the 19th century, when the head wear was replaced with that similar to Croatian head garments worn across Sava river.
Town Clothing
A completely separate group is made by the town clothing, both of the larger cities as well as smaller towns across the region. Most of the accounts of this group have been left in the 19th century by various travelers who were passing through the country. From this period of time, a large number of authentic original clothing has been preserved, especially that of the Muslim population, and, in smaller numbers, of Christian Croat and Serbian population as well as of Jewish population. Town costumes are more or less similar across the area with a significant evidence of oriental influence. Wide pants, silver 'pafte' belt clasps, Balkan vests, are only some of the examples, although the costume is not limited to this. The photo on the right shows one of the examples of clothing worn in the cities. By the end of 19th century, this clothing bears a strong evidence of oriental influence in the patterns as well as the materials used and most of the material is imported from the East, although some comes from the West, especially from Venice. It was mostly class difference that this clothing emphasized, while religious and national difference was evident in minimal details and much rarely. For example, the slight difference of the ‘fes’ colour as well as the colour of the belt could tell about the religious and national identity of the person. Similarly, while the Muslim women were more likely to wear light pastel coloured 'dimije' oriental pants, Christian Croats and Serbs could wear those of black satin or atlas colour. Wives of the beg landowners wore pants made of much more expensive material and they were usually richly embroidered with gold. At the end of the century, however,political and social changes brought together changes in fashion. Western influence began to become more evident in fabrics, textiles and some costume parts. European fashion, largely accepted by the less conservative feudal citizens, began to spread across the towns and shirts similar to those Western ones began to be worn, often made from the same material as the oriental 'dimije'. It was mostly the clothing of the more conservative Muslims which did not accept the new changes so quickly, with the exception of perhaps western black shoes. Muslim women were completely covered when leaving the house, first just with a headscarf, and at then entirely. This black or dark blue overcoat was worn with leather shoes and was especially different in Mostar areas, where the top covered the face entirely. The photo on the right shows some of the ways women were covered, with Mostar's example second from the right. The 'zar' cover was made from different types of silk, while Austro-Hungarian influence brought Western materials into use. This was actually a whole piece of fabric made into skirt below, while the top part would be thrown around the body and tied around the shoulders to cover a woman entirely.