Paper short abstract:

The paper deals with the traditional costume worn in the course of calendar festivals at various occasions and the feast of marking the end of the harvest among the Croat subethnic group in the county of Vojvodina (Serbia) as an identity marker and a symbolic object.

Paper long abstract:

The paper deals with the traditional costume worn in the course of calendar festivals and the feast of marking the end of the harvest among the Croat subethnic group in the region of Bačka (county of Vojvodina) in Serbia. It is used as a symbol and an ethnocultural identity marker of the group. Some of these customs have undergone a great revival in the past twenty years, performed in certain calendar periods or specific days during the ritual year, such as: the central cultural and social event in the winter period immediatelly preceding Shrovetide and Lent in order to contextualize the complex phenomenon of the so called prelo ('spinning bee'), Easter Monday (boys visit girl in order to pour water over them) and the Pentecost pageant (so called kraljice). In addition to the festive calendar year, the traditional costume has an important symbolic meaning in the frame of various manifestations on the occasion of the so called dužijanca, a continuing celebration marking the end of the harvest among the Bunjevci Croats in the region of Bačka, which exists as public event over a century. The use of the traditional clothing at these various occasions will be analysed with a special focus on its significance as an identity marker and a symbolic object.