doiSerbia

Maintaining ethnic identity: Family patron's day among the Serbs in Budapest and surrounding area

Prelić Mladena M. (Etnografski institut SANU, Beograd)

Celebration of Family patron's day is very widespread among Serbs in general. The traditional model of celebration suffered many changes, which in practice resulted in many variations in terms of its form. Regardless of its relatively simple form of celebration, Family patron's day still represents a very complex, amalgamating and multifunctional custom. In addition to religious aspects (both pagan and Christian), the celebration itself contains important social and symbolic ethnic identity issues. The latter one is the most emphasized among the Serbs living in Hungary. This paper briefly describes informants' views with respect to the holiday as a symbol of ethnicity, and the holiday's present day forms of celebration.

Keywords: Family patron's day, Serbs in Hungary, ethnic identity, tradition, custom