Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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Serbia has so much history, it’s hard to keep track of it all.  I am not one to remember historical facts even a minute after hearing them, but I’ve learned some about Serbia that have stuck with me because of visual reminders.  The people here love to teach about their history.  It's a way of inviting us into their world. The rest I have researched to put some order and understanding to my sporatic insights. 

One piece of interesting history is that of the Orthodox church.  When the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire ruled (500 yrs) until 1878, Islam was the main influence of the Turks.  Serbia, however, held onto their Orthodox beliefs for that period of time and are therefore, a people with a deep root (culture, identity, religion) of Orthodoxy.  Some of our young friends have ignorantly expressed their hatred of Turkish people even today.  On the opposite side of the spectrum, I have one friend who is actually studying the Turkish language in college.

We have gone to a few Orthodox churches in Serbia and in Romania and have observed some interesting things. 
 


 

First is the unique music.  Second are the murals on the walls.  The murals are quite extravagant.  The Turks gouged the eyes out of many of the portraits because they were made of gold.  Third, was the dead skin of saints in cases.  Fourth was people walking into these churches, standing before a picture of a saint or of Jesus, using their fingers to motion a cross across their chest to their head, kissing the picture, then putting money down by the picture.  The people also buy candles and go into a room, light their candle and say a prayer for each one lit.  They believe that a prayer is not heard unless a candle is lit.  Within cementaries also, we have learned that candles are lit and a prayer is said in order to bring light to the dead and to keep them out of darkness in the afterlife.  It is rituals for most people.  Some are set on the Orthodox title for their identity, when they aren't necessarily following any form of Orthodoxy.  Further, there are many young people who are open to discussing faith and religion and have been rejected by the Orthodox church because they possess questions related to faith.

One Orthodox tradition is called Slava, in which each family has a feast, once a year, to celebrate the day of a Patron Saint.  Each household has its own saint.  History says that this saint replaced a protective god from when Serbians were a polytheistic Slavic tribe.  The celebration of Slava involves inviting friends over and serving them a feast.  Each saint has a specific day of the year in which he is celebrated.  So if I invite you over and serve you a feast to celebrate my household's saint, in return you are expected to invite me over and serve me a feast to celebrate your household's saint.

After Serbia gained independence (in 1878) from the Turkish rule, the Balkan wars (1912–1913) broke out.   Serbia and other Balkan states seized hold of more former Ottoman lands on the peninsula.  Then in 1918, World War I broke out and within months, much of Europe was at war. In the war's aftermath, Serbia became part of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.  It included the former kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro; Bosnia-Herzegovina; Croatia-Slavonia, a semiautonomous region of Hungary; and Dalmatia.  These countries were later renamed Yugoslavia in 1929 and a monarchy was in existence in Serbia. 

In 1941 (during WWII), Nazi Germany entered Yugoslavia and was defeated by Tito.  A group of people called ‘The Freedom Fighters’ resulted from this time period.  Graffiti lines the streets, of Uzice saying 'F.F.' for freedom fighters or 'slobada' which means freedom.  They are a rebellious group of young people, who developed as a result of being the only ones to survive Nazi Germany influence.  Of all the European countries ruled by Nazi Germany, Uzice is the only city  that had freedom.  Because of this, many young people are part of a proud, bold group called Freedom Fighters.  As a result of Nazi defeat, the Communist Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, with Tito as prime minister, was born.

 
After Tito's death, Slobadon Milosevic became president of  the Serbian republic in 1989.  He began promoting Serbian domination which led to ethic tensions in a collection of multiple nationalities and regions of Yugoslavia.  This resulted in the independence of Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia, beginning in 1991.  Because each region of Yugoslavia had peoples of many different nationalities and religions, the independence of some regions from Yugoslavia brought about fighting between each region (as a result of one ethnic or religious group wanting to dominate).  For example, Bosnia was 43% Muslim, 31% Serbian, and 17% Croatian..the most ethinically diverse group of the Yugoslavia republics.  Milosevic  forced the dominion of Serbs in Bosnia even though they were a minority.  In doing this, many muslims were killed. 

Constitutionally barred from another term as president of Serbia, Milosevic became president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (which at this stage consisted of just Serbia and Montenegro) in 1997.  In 1998 the Yugoslav army and Serbian police began fighting against the separatist Kosovo (a southern region of Serbia) Liberation Army, with their direction being concetrated on ethnic Albanian civilians (Muslims who make up 90% of Kosovo's population).

NATO was reluctant to intervene because Kosovo—unlike Bosnia in 1992—was legally a province of Yugoslavia. The proof of civilian massacres finally caused NATO to intervene for the first time ever in the dealings of a sovereign nation with its own people. NATO's reason for involvement in Kosovo changed from avoiding a wider Balkan war to preventing a human rights calamity. On March 24, 1999, NATO began launching air strikes.  There is a parking lot in the town of Uzice, Serbia that used to be a huge post office.  NATO bombed this large post office in 1999 to cut communications.  The post office was the only thing touched in the town of Uzice during these air strikes.  Friends said that people left their houses and went and stood near where the bomb hit.  No fear.  No hiding in their house. 
 


In 2000, Milosevic was no longer the president of the Serbian republic and was charged with 66 different war crimes.  With Serbia and Montenegro as the only nations still apart of Yugoslavia, Montenegro became an independant nation in 2006.  In 2008, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, with a lot of reluctance and ongoing dispute of its legality from the rest of Serbia.

These wars have led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and refugees over the years.  These people have experienced war after war, never knowing when stability will come.  With war, the economy has collapsed and people have lost everything.  However, with war, Serbs have gained a toughness about them, a confidence, a boldness.  We cannot even imagine what this would have been like to experience over the years. 

With so many things that we cannot relate to and thus know how to speak into, we are left with a sensitivity in approaching topics of war and of religious beliefs.  Praise God that people have received us well with their with their desire to move beyond the hurts of generations before them.