Multiculturalism: Christian Orthodox Serbs in Balkans

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Multiculturalism: Christian Orthodox Serbs in Balkans

Being a part of a certain culture means having common ground with some other people. Most of the time we are not even aware that we belong to a certain culture, but every human being belongs somewhere, and not only to one group but to more of them. Our beliefs, customs, traditions, place of birth, religion can determine our belonging to a group. Christianity itself is everywhere in the world and even though long time ago it was one religion; branches of Christianity are countless today. Three most important branches of Christianity are Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy even though Orthodoxy is less known in western world. The main division of the church occurred in year 1054, when church separated in two branches, Catholicism and Orthodoxy, and this event is known as east-west schism. Culture I chose to talk about is culture I am part of as well, is Serbian Orthodoxy and believers with origins from Balkan area. The reason I chose this culture to talk about is because they differ from every other religious culture in their own customs, traditions and beliefs and because religion interferes in their everyday life, even politics.
Religion is a very sensitive topic, especially in the part of the world called Balkans. When we are talking about religion it is a part of someone’s spiritual life and people are mostly educated about it and they know the reason why do they call themselves Christian, Muslim, Jew, etc. When we go to Balkans, territory of ex-Yugoslavia, religion is a part of someone’s spiritual life, but it is also connected to political beliefs and it is usually determined by birth. Balkan has three major religions and people usually relate it to their ethnicity...

... middle of paper ...

...ately it will take long time to settle peace among all Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks, but with new generations coming, the bigotry itself will fade away.

Works Cited

Wilmer, Franke. “Identity, Culture, and Historicity: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF ETHNICITY IN THE BALKANS”. World Affairs, Vol. 160, No. 1, Ethnicity and Politics (SUMMER 1997), pp. 3-16. World Affairs Institute. Heldref Publications. JSTOR archive. Web.
Fr. Dosenovich.”Specifics of Serbian Orthodoxy”. Orthodox Research Institute. Calendar of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the United States and Canada. 1986.
Majstorovic, Steven. “Ancient Hatreds or Elite Manipulation: MEMORY AND POLITICS IN THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA”. World Affairs, Vol. 159, No. 4 (SPRING 1997), pp. 170-182. World Affairs Institute. Heldref publications. JSTOR archive. Web.
Official web page, “Crkveni calendar” (trans. Church Calendar)

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