Vlachs of Serbia

The Vlachs (endonym: ''Rumînji'' or ''Rumâni'', sr, Власи, Vlasi) are a Romanian-speaking ethnic minority in eastern Serbia with an origin from Wallachia (now part of Romania). They mostly live in the Eastern Serbia region (roughly corresponding to the districts of Bor and Zaječar), but also in Braničevo and Pomoravlje districts. A small Vlach population also exists in Smederevo and Velika Plana (Podunavlje District), and in the municipalities of Aleksinac and Kruševac (Rasina District).

Etymology

Vlach could be an exonym for the eastern Latin-speaking community in the Balkans that was considered foreign in medieval times, which resulted from the occupation and colonization of the region during the Roman Empire. Vlach was later used to describe not only a member of the population but some occupations like guardian soldiers or frontier troops and cattleman, as they were jobs required in the medieval era. Eventually, the various ethnic groups under the label mixed and came to later create their own new identity under such medieval states' influence.

History

During the Ottoman rule, large numbers of Vlachs were settled in the Smederevo area. Today, about three-quarters of the Vlach population speak the Romanian Ungurean subdialect (which is similar to the Romanian spoken in Banat), although Vlachs themselves consider it to be a distinct language. In the 19th century, other groups of Romanians originating in Oltenia (Lesser Wallachia) also settled south of the Danube. These are the Țărani (''Carani'', Царани), who form some 25% of the modern population and speak a variety of Oltenian dialect. From the 15th through the 18th centuries large numbers of Serbs also migrated across the Danube, but in the opposite direction, to both Banat and Țara Româneasca. Significant migration ended by the establishment of the kingdoms of Serbia and Romania in the second half of the 19th century. The Vlachs of northeastern Serbia share close linguistic and cultural ties with the Vlachs in the region of Vidin in Bulgaria as well as the Romanians of Banat and Oltenia. According to some Romanian sources, northeastern Serbia is home to several Vlach communities who speak dialects similar to ones in parts of western Romania: in Banat, Transylvania, and Oltenia. These are the Ungureni (''Ungurjani'', Унгурјани), Munteni (''Munćani'', Мунћани) and Bufeni (''Bufani'', Буфани).

Culture

Language

The Vlachs speak a group of archaic Romanian varieties known as "Vlach" in Serbia. The Romanian language of the Vlachs has not been used in local administration, not even in the few localities where members of the minority represent more than 15% of the population, where it would be allowed according to Serbian law. This is mostly because of the lack of teachers and because Vlach is more of an oral than a written language. Since 2012, there have been continuous efforts to standardize Vlach in a written form, and the teaching of Vlach has started in schools. While the Vlach standard written language is under development, the Vlach Council in Serbia in 2006 debated the use of Serbian as the official language and Romanian as the literary language. This proposition of the council was confirmed in a document it issued in 2010 – endorsing the Serbian language while written Vlach was being developed. In 2012, the council decided to adopt a proposition on written and oral Vlach and started to work towards its standardization.

Religion

Most Vlachs of Eastern Serbia are Orthodox Christians and have belonged to the Serbian Orthodox Church since medieval times. The Vlachs celebrate the ospăț (''hospitium'', in Latin), in Serbian ''praznik'' or '' slava'', as a family's annual ceremony and veneration of their patron saint is a common tradition with Orthodox Serbs. Some Vlach political organizations also have ''slava''. Stefan Nemanja is one of the venerated patrons among Vlach because he mentioned the Vlach people in Hilandar monastery's constitution, including 170 Vlach who helped a monastery. The Serbian Orthodox church in Cetinje is called "Vlach church" – ''Vlaška crkva'' – in remembrance of Vlachs who helped to build it. Vlach Ivan Borojev built the original Vlach church in Cetnije after coming from Old Vlach country near Zlatibor mountain.

The relative isolation of the Vlachs has permitted the survival of various pre-Christian religious customs and beliefs that are frowned upon by the Orthodox Church. Vlach magic rituals are well known across modern Serbia, and some customs of the Vlachs are very similar to those from Southern Romania (Wallachia).

In the last few decades, especially since 2001, the Romanian Orthodox Church non-canonically tried to claim and convert Vlach Orthodox believers in Serbia as their own, and at the same time called them Romanians. Some Romanian priests tried to have services in Serbia in places populated by Vlachs. Prior to this, there was no Romanian church in places where the Romanian Orthodox Church in Serbia is trying now to build them.

Music and folklore

Since 2009, there has been an international "Gergina" Vlach festival of music and folklore held in Serbia, which includes competitions. There have been efforts to preserve original Vlach poems and music and perform them for the public. Cultural festivities in the country include a Balkan festival of traditional Vlach culture.

Vlach cuisine

''Žumijare'' (in Vlach, or ''Žmare'' in Serbian) is a traditional Vlach dish. It is made from corn flour, sheep meat, onions, and cooking oil. A festival in Petrovac na Mlavi is dedicated to cooking ''Žmare''.

Demographics

In the 2002 census 40,054 people in Serbia declared themselves ethnic Vlachs, and 54,818 people declared themselves speakers of the Romanian "Vlach" language. The Vlachs of Serbia are recognized as a minority, like the Romanians of Serbia, who number 34,576 according to the 2002 census.

In the 2011 census 35,330 people in Serbia declared themselves ethnic Vlachs, and 43,095 people declared themselves speakers of Vlach. and

On the census, the Vlachs declared themselves either as Serbs, Vlachs or Romanians. Therefore, the "real" number of people of Vlach origin could be much greater than the number of recorded Vlachs, both due to mixed marriages with Serbs and also Serbian national feeling among some Vlachs.

Historical population

The following numbers from census data suggest the possible number of Vlachs:

*1846: Vlach 96,215
*1850: Vlach 104,807
*1866: 127,402
*1895: 159,510
*1961: 1,330 Vlachs
*1981: 135,000 people declared Vlach as their mother language (population figure given for the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
*2002: 40,054 declared Vlachs; 54,818 people declared Vlach as their mother language (population figures given for entire Serbia); 39,953 declared Vlachs, 54,726 people declared Vlach as their mother language (population figures given for Central Serbia only)
*2011: 35,330 declared Vlachs;

The Vlach population of Central Serbia is concentrated mostly in the region bordered by the Morava River (west), Danube River (north) and Timok River (south-east).

National Identity and etymology

The community is known as ''Vlasi'' ("Vlachs") in Serbian and Vlachs are by some standards considered highly assimilated into Serbian society because it is mostly bilingual in the Serbian and Vlach languages, similar to Sorbs in Germany, and in same time they are adhering to the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Some Romanians, as well as international linguists and anthropologists, consider Serbia's Vlachs to be a subgroup of Romanians. However, the results of the last census showed that most Vlachs of Eastern Serbia opted for the Serbian and Vlach exonym ''vlasi'' (= Vlachs) rather than ''rumuni'' (= Romanians).

Vlach national leaders in Serbia regard Vlach as separate and noncognate to Romanians in the cultural and linguistic sense, although some Vlachs from the Resava area consider themselves to be simply Serbs that speak Vlach.

While Vlach culture has some traditional rituals and language in parts similar to Romanians, Vlach names and other customs indicate that they are of Old Balkan people or Slovene ancestry and they share names with Serbs. There are many folkloric societies of Vlach that are preserving customs and traditions of Vlachs.

Vlachs, since the effort of standardization of their language in 2012, started to have their own Vlachs language taught in schools in Serbia from 2017.

Vlach is commonly used as a historical umbrella term for all Latin peoples in Southeastern Europe (Romanians proper or Daco-Romanians, Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians). After the foundation of the Romanian state in the 19th century, Romanians living in the Romanian Old Kingdom and in Austria-Hungary were seldom called "Vlachs" by foreigners, the use of the exonym "Romanians" was encouraged even by some officials, and the Romanian population ceased to use the exonym "Vlach" for their own designation. Only in the Kingdom of Serbia and Bulgarian Kingdom, where the officials did not encourage the population to use the modern exonym "Romanian", was the old designation "Vlach" retained, but the term "Romanian" was used in statistical reports (but only up to the Interwar period, when the designation "Romanian" was changed into "Vlach").

Legal status

According to the Constitution and Law on protecting freedom and right of national minorities in Serbia any discrimination towards Vlach is prohibited since they are a representative people that have their own language and culture. Since 2006, Vlachs had according to law formed the National Council of Vlachs in Serbia. It was registered in the National Registry of Minorities in 2007.

The Law on official language and letters in Serbia has enabled Vlach language to be used in local communities administrations if they have enough representation in population. Otherwise, the biggest obstacle to using the Vlach language was that it is mostly an oral language. Since 2012, efforts are made toward standardization as a written language since enabling with development of standardization soon to be used in local communities in schools and in administration with significant Vlach population.

The Romanian ethnonym for Vlach is ''Rumâni'' and the community ''Rumâni din Sârbie'', translated into English as "Romanians from Serbia". They are also known in Romanian as ''Valahii din Serbia'' or ''Românii din Timoc''. Although ethnographically and linguistically related to the Romanians, within the Vlach community there are divergences on whether or not they belong to the Romanian nation and whether or not their minority should be amalgamated with the Romanian minority in Vojvodina.

Romanian media gave false report that in a Romanian- Yugoslav agreement of November 4, 2002, the Yugoslav authorities agreed to recognize the Romanian identity of the Vlach population in Central Serbia, but the agreement was not implemented, while in the actual agreement there is no mention of Vlachs.

In April 2005, 23 deputies from the Council of Europe, representatives from Hungary, Georgia, Lithuania, Romania, Moldova, Estonia, Armenia, Azerbaïdjan, Denmark, and Bulgaria protested against Serbia's treatment of the Vlach population.

The Senate of Romania, in order to pressure Serbia to convert Vlach to Romanians, postponed the ratification of Serbia's candidature for membership in the European Union until the legal status and minority right of the Romanian (Vlach) population in Serbia is clarified.

Predrag Balašević, president of one of many Vlach political parties in Serbia, accused the government of assimilation by using the national Vlach organization against the interests of this minority in Serbia.

Since 2010, the Vlach National Council of Serbia has been led by members of leading Serbian parties, most of whom are ethnic Serbs having no relation to the Vlach/Romanian minority. Radiša Dragojević, the current president of Vlach National Council of Serbia, who is not a Vlach, but an ethnic Serb, stated that no one has the right to ask the Vlach minority in Serbia to identify themselves as Romanian or veto anything.
As a response to mister Dragojević's statement, the cultural organizations ''Ariadnae Filum'', ''Društvo za kulturu Vlaha – Rumuna Srbije'', ''Društvo Rumuna – Vlaha "Trajan"'', ''Društvo za kulturu, jezik i religiju Vlaha – Rumuna Pomoravlja'', ''Udruženje za tradiciju i kulturu Vlaha "Dunav"'', ''Centar za ruralni razvoj – Vlaška kulturna inicijativa Srbija'' and the Vlach Party of Serbia protested and stated that it was false.

Notable people

* Bojan Aleksandrović, Romanian Orthodox priest in the Timok Valley
* Predrag Balašević, Vlach politician defending the identification of the Vlachs as Romanians
* Branko Olar, one of the best known singers of Vlach folklore from Eastern Serbia, originating from the village of Slatina near Bor
* Staniša Paunović, a well-known Vlach folklore singer, originating from Negotin, from Eastern Serbia
* Dușan Pârvulovici, activist for the minority rights of the Vlachs and their right for education in the Romanian language

See also

* Romanians of Serbia
* Vlachs in medieval Serbia
* Vlachs of Croatia
* Aromanians in Serbia
* Romanian language in Serbia
* Romanians in Bulgaria

References

Sources

*
*

Further reading

*
*Sorescu-Marinković, Annemarie. "The Vlachs of North-Eastern Serbia: Fieldwork and Field Methods Today." Symposia–Caiete de Etnologie şi Antropologie. 2006.
*Sikimić, Biljana, and Annemarie Sorescu. "The Concept of Loneliness and Death among Vlachs in North-eastern Serbia." Symposia–Caiete de etnologie şi antropologie. 2004.
*Marinković, Annemarie Sorescu. "Vorbarĭ Rumîńesk: The Vlach on line Dictionary." Philologica Jassyensia 8.1 (2012): 47–60.
*Ivkov-Džigurski, Anđelija, et al. "The Mystery of Vlach Magic in the Rural Areas of 21st century Serbia." Eastern European Countryside 18 (2012): 61–83.
*Marinković, Annemarie Sorescu. "Cultura populară a românilor din Timoc–încercare de periodizare a cercetărilor etnologice." Philologica Jassyensia 2.1 (2006): 73–92.

External links

Community of Vlachs of Serbia



History of the Romanians living on the South of the Danube
(Romanian/Serbian)

Vlach necropolises

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vlachs Of Serbia

Timok Valley
Ethnic groups in Serbia
Eastern Romance people