A real man knows what Slava is

Serbians love their holidays and they have a lot. In November I was invited to Slava for the first time. Many traditions in Serbia differ to German rituals and you have to take care not to behave in a wrong way. Be aware: ripping the clothes of your host is only allowed when a child is born into the family. But for Slava a right behaviour its quite easy. Three kisses on the cheek and food without fat and meat (and that is even a rhyme). At least it is the tradition for the Slava I visited, Sveti Arandjel. And by the way fish is not counting as meat. In November Serbia is divided in few parts during celebration of Slava. Every family is celebrating their own Saint. For the act of celebrating every family member and friend is invited. But because there is not enough space for all in one time they are making a timetable. So it can happen that you have to go without your company because he is invited for another time. But anyway the self made food containing of ajvar, baked fish, Russian salade, baklava and much more was stunning.

The December began really explosive. Instead of holy night there is a war going on in front of my house. Screaming, banging and the appearance of bright lights. Decorating for Christmas? Not now! Considering the fact that most people in Serbia are Russian Orthodox they start decorating quite late because the celebration of Christmas is only on the 6th of January which seems to be strange for us. So the first thing to get in a Christmas mood is to buy fireworks and firecrackers for the kids. And they are fired 24 hours a day. Although this is not normal the kids are quite responsible with this stuff. They don't throw it on people as I am used to see in Germany. Bravo! Luckily I had the possibility to flee from this “war” and to smell some German Christmas anticipation chaos. With the theater play "Muškarčine" (Macho Men) we traveled for one week to Berlin and Dresden. This study visit was organized with our partner organization Roter Baum e.V. that is active in youth work and has offices in Berlin and Dresden. About this trip I was already exited few months ago. Because it would be the only possibility to meet my friends and family in a long time. Part of our group were the actors, the technical support and the producers of Macho Men that are staff of the Centar E8 office in Belgrade that I don't meet very often. So I was happy to travel with all of them to my home country and to see how they experience this land that so many people from Serbia want to live in or at least want to travel sometime. The first two days were preserved to do some sightseeing in Berlin. These two days I used to visit friends and family in Dresden. The time was too little I realized in the end. Sunday evening I was back with the group in Berlin and we watched some big theater show in the famous Friedrichstadtpalast. What to say about this... I came too late and the first thing I saw was a dog dressage scene that seemed to be taken from some “Wanderzirkus” and put in the fancy scenery of Friedrichstadtpalast. But it was luckily not characteristic for the rest of the show. The rest was honestly impressing and what you can do on stage with an ensemble of 100 artists is unbelievable and might be taken from ideas of some really crazy people. But with a budget of over 10 million Euro you probably can expect something like this. The next day was the big day for our team that could finally show what is possible even with a much smaller budget but with good ideas about a serious subject, creative collaboration and the co-authorship of all actors. The idea of the theater play is to give a picture of young men in Serbia today. It was supposed to give an answer to the question what a real man is. In the end there is no answer but there are given examples of concepts. The content is a collage of personal stories and experiences of the actors but also phrases taken from the book „To be a man“ by Steve Biddulph that works with theoretical concepts of men. The theater play stands not only for itself. Rather it is the representative part of a whole process that is handling the subject "How to be a man". A good impression also gives the documentary that was made to show how the theater play was created. I was also nervous about the success of the play because they are playing in Serbian language with English subtitles. To make it easier for language-lazy Germans I translated them into German. So I also felt a small responsibility for the success. But in the end I realized that even it was in Serbian many jokes worked out so well that you don't need translations. The actors that were not professional when they were casted are doing so good that you would never believe that they are "only ordinary young men from Serbia". I believe that this whole process changed them and made them even more aware about this subject but also self confident. The audience in Berlin liked the play and was applauding for a long time. After two plays in Berlin there was one left for Dresden in the great cinema Schauburg. Even the day was stressful and full of meetings with other associations, gender officers and sightseeing the mood was pretty good for the play. I expected many of my friends and also my parents to finally see a bit of what I am doing in Serbia. I have to admit that the audience BUT also the play was the best in Dresden. After the two plays in Berlin I already knew the jokes and was laughing all the time. The mood was hilarious (note on the edge: the same pronunciation with Saxon and French accent: [hülläriuhs]) and we had a nice last night in Dresden. Totally overtired I used the opportunity to meet some friends for the last time but I guess I wasn't a good company when I started sleeping on the bar table. To crown this lack of sleep I had to drive our van at 5 in the morning back to Berlin to catch the flight to Belgrade. I'm never! never! never! a grumpy person and I was even surprised on my own when I caught myself cursing to some group members. Sorry for that.

This trip gave me the possibility to have Serbia and Germany in a direct compare and the differences are partly large. Safe bus trips with WiFi and a Media Center on board in Germany? No need to fasten your seat belt in Serbia. Going home from your favorite bar with fresh smelling clothes in Germany? The freedom to smoke everywhere in Serbia. I guess everything has its good and bad sides. This Germany visit was obviously a great thing for all group members and also might have changed some minds or stereotypes in the same way it gave Germans an reflected and partly ironic impression of Serbian culture and history through the lens of this theater play.  

article in Serbian and photos

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