Festivities

Bosnians celebrate a number of religious, secular, and family holidays. Especially in the cities, where intermarriage is common, families might celebrate the state New Year holiday, Orthodox and Catholic Christmas, and New Year's Day, along with such purely secular occasions as the Day of the Republic and Tito's birthday. Eastern Orthodox Christian families also celebrate the slava, or saint's name day of the family.

It was extremely common for Bosnians of all religious persuasions, including officially atheist Communists, to celebrate each other's holidays. Catholics would visit Muslim households during Bajram, while Muslims would attend Christmas services with Catholic friends.

Muslim festivities center on Ramadan, the month of ritual fasting associated with the lunar calendar. Exchanging household visits and small gifts is a particular feature of the three days at the end of Ramadan (called Bajram). During this period the minarets of all the mosques (including the uniquely Bosnian lighthouse-style wooden minaret) are illuminated with strings of electric lights.

Public religious occasions, like the 450th anniversary of the Gazi Husrefbey Mosque in Sarajevo (since hit numerous times by Serbian shelling), often attracted quite large crowds.

On a more secular level, weddings are a major time of celebration, as was army induction day, when young men would leave for their compulsory national service. Soccer matches could draw huge crowds of home-team fans surging through the streets, as could the Bosanska Korrida, during which bulls are encouraged to fight one another. This latter festival especially attracted countryfolk.

Folklore festivals and folklore competitions between amateur performing groups were a major feature of contemporary Bosnian life. Bosnian amateur folklore groups, called Cultural Arts Societies, were found throughout the republic. They were required to perform the dance, music, and song folklore of all three major ethnicities in Bosnia as well as the folklore of the other republics of Yugoslavia. Cultural Arts Societies were generally not allowed to perform the folklore of only one ethnic group or republic. Successful performances at local festivities could earn such a society the privilege of performing abroad, generally touring Yugoslav guest worker communities in Western Europe.

In another sense of performance, the Bosnian sense of humor has been a rich one. Jokes about two Bosnian peasants, Suljo and Mujo, were common throughout Bosnia and indeed all of ex-Yugoslavia. In fact, these jokes still appear in Sarajevo under siege, as in the following example:

Suljo sees his friend Mujo swinging back and forth on a child's swing set in the middle of Sarajevo's notorious 'Sniper's Alley.' Dodging from cover to cover, risking life and limb, Suljo finally gets close enough to shout, "Hey, Mujo, what the hell are you doing? Get out of there!" To which Mujo shouts in reply, "I'm harassing a sniper!"

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