Serbian-American Online Community Network *USA Serbs*

ART AND POPULAR CULTURE

CUISINE

Serbian cuisine over the centuries has adopted the tastes and flavors of the Middle Eastern, Turkish, Hungarian, and Austrian foods. Roast suckling pig and lamb are still very much appreciated and served on festive occasions. Serbs are also fond of casserole dishes with or without meat; pies (consisting of meat, cheese, or fruit); all kinds of fried foods, and an assortment of cakes, cookies, and condiments that rival the displays in Vienna and Budapest.

A few representative dishes would be šarma , stuffed cabbage, made from leaves of sour cabbage, or from wine leaves, and chopped beef or veal, often in combination with chopped pork, onions, smoked meat for added flavor; Serbs especially appreciate gibanjica , or pita gibanjica , a cheese pie made with feta or cottage cheese (an American substitute for the cheese used in the homeland), or the combination of both, butter, filo pastry leaves, eggs, and milk. Čevapčići , the summer time favorite for cook-outs, are small barbecued sausage-like pieces, prepared from a combination of freshly chopped pork, lamb, veal, and beef, and served with raw onions.

Serbs like to drink wine, beer, and especially the plum brandy called šljivovica , which is the national drink, made from šljiva , or plums, the Serbian national fruit. Another word for šljivovica is rakija , which is once-distilled plum brandy; twice-distilled šljivovica is called prepečenica . Serbs drink at all kinds of celebrations: weddings, baptisms, and krsna slavas; and every raised glass is accompanied with the exclamation: Živeli , or "Live long." It is not surprising that many Serbs found California to be the perfect place for continuing the family tradition of growing grapes to produce wine, or plums for šljivovica.

TRADITIONAL COSTUMES

Serbian traditional clothing consists of richly embroidered, colorful garments, which are worn today only by the dancers in the folkloric dance ensembles, or perhaps at other events inspired by folk motives, such as picnics, harvests, or church festivals. Each region has its own particular motives and ways of wearing these costumes, making it easy to discern one from another. The typical costume for women from Serbia proper consists of a fine linen blouse richly embroidered with floral or folk motifs; a vest called a jelek , cut low under the breast, made of velvet, embroidered with silver and gold thread, and worn tightly around the waist; an ample colorful skirt accompanied by an embroidered apron and a white linen petticoat worn longer than the skirt to show off the hand-crocheted lace; knitted and embroidered stockings; and a pair of handmade leather slipper-like footwear called opanci . The hair is long and braided; the braids are sometimes worn down the back or twisted in a bun around the head.

The costume for men consists of a head cap called a šajkača , a white linen shirt, a wool jacket, and pants (The jacket is short with sober decorations and the pants are worn tight around the knees.) A richly decorated sash is tied around the waist. Knitted and embroidered socks and opanci (leather shoes) are worn on the feet. The fabrics used were always homegrown, spun, or woven, and the costumes were made at home. The early immigrants stood out in an American crowd by the way their clothes looked, which provided an easy target for ridicule. Today, these costumes have given way to standard dress, and if still in existence, are brought out only at folk festivals.

LANGUAGE 

The Serbian language is part of the Slavic language group to which belong Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Bulgarian, and Macedonian. In the seventh century two Greek missionaries, Cyril and Methodius, created the Slavic alphabet, called the Cyrillic, which is still used by the Russians, Serbs, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, and Macedonians. The Old Slavonic, or Staroslovenski, was the original literary language of all the Slavs. It evolved into the Church Slavonic, or Crkvenoslovenski, which in turn engendered the Serb Church Slavonic, the Serb literary language up until the nineteenth century.

In the early nineteenth century Vuk Srefanović Karadjić (1787-1864), who become known as the father of the "modern" Serbian language, reconstructed the alphabet to conform it phonetically with the oral language, thus recognizing the spoken language as the literary language; this resulted in reawakening Serbian culture in general. He published the first Serbian dictionary in 1818, and collected and published volumes of epic and lyrical poetry that had survived in the oral tradition in the Serbian countryside. His voluminous correspondence is an important political and literary document.

Immigrants were confronted with the modification of their language as it came into contact with English, resulting in the incorporation of many English words into everyday use, especially those that were needed to communicate in a more complex society and did not exist in their rural vocabulary. Another American influence can be seen in the fact that many immigrants changed their names for simplification. Often the changing of names was done by either the immigration officers at the time of entry into the United States, or by the employers at the factories or mines who were not accustomed to dealing with complicated Slavic names. At other times, the immigrants themselves opted for simple American names, either for business reasons, or to escape being a target for ridicule. Also, some changes were the result of the immigrants' desire to show loyalty to their adopted country; thus, the names were either simply translated—Ivan into John, Ivanović into Johnson—or the diacritical marks over the letters "ć" and the "š" were dropped and replaced by English-sounding equivalents such as Sasha for Saša and Simich for Simić. About 25 percent of all Serbian Americans declared Serbian as their mother tongue in the 1990 U.S. census.

GREETINGS AND OTHER COMMON EXPRESSIONS

Some basic greetings and sayings in Serbian include: dobro jutro ("dobro yutro")—good morning; dobar dan (pronounced as written)—good day; dobro veče ("dobro vetche")—good evening; zdravo (pronounced as written)—greetings; hvala ("khvala")—thank you; dobro došli ("dobro doshli")—welcome

Serbian Americans