Central Serbia

Central Serbia

Central Serbia consists of several smallr areas, like the Belgrade region in the North, Takovo and Rudničko Pomoravlje in the south, Kolubara in the West and Velika Morava in the East. This region is often called Šumadija or Pomoravlje, although these are only its biggest areas.

Šumadija is the central part o Serbia. The name dates from ancient times and was derived from the main characteristic of the region, spacious dense forests. The forest areas have been shrinking lately, due to the shift from cattle-breeding to agriculture and the expansion of urban areas. It is situated between the Danube, the Velika Morava, the Zapadna Morava and the Kolubara. The relief is characterized by numerous plains, valleys and mountains. The highest mountain is Rudnik with its 1132 metres high peak - Cvijićev Vrh. People grow fruits, especially plums and grapes, vegetables and grain. The oldest traces of human habitations, dating from the old Palaeolithic Period, were found in the Risovača Cave.

As the result of the hilly relief of Šumadija, the habitations were disapersed and this type of habitation is known in geographic and ethnographic literature as Šumadija type. The houses are far away from one another with meadows, fields and orchards between them. Apart from Topola and Aranđelovac  with Bukovička Banja, Kragujevac deserves to be mentioned as the trade, tourist, industrial, cultural and university centre of the region.

According to popular belief, the bride and groom were exposed to evil powers and curse, so the greatest attention was paid to their protection. Special protective power was attributed to bridal geaddress, which consisted of objects considered to be good protection against dark forces and primarly "evil eyes". Those were: silver coins, peacock's feathers, little mirrors... On the wedding day, the bride put on all the jewellery which she used to wear as a grils, but it was even richer and more luxuriant. She also put on the bridal headdress for the first time and continued to wear it on special occasions until the birth of the first child, which was considered to be the turning point from the bridal status into the status of a married woman. That was the first time she wore the wedding ring, as another sign of marital status.