Mačva

Mačva

Mačva is the northernmost micro-region in Western Serbia. As far as relief is concerned it is a flood plain, formed by the sedimentation of the Drina river. It is bordered by the currents of the rivers Sava and Drina and the region of Cer mountain. Some diversions of the riverbed of the Sava happened due to she sedimentation and the vortex of the Drina. In that way, river lakes like Bitva and Zasavica were formed. Originally, Zasavica was the reiverbed of the Sava, then of the Drina but now it meanders parellelly with the Sava. Mačva is the mot fertile plain in Serbia, famous for growing wheat, corn, vegetables, and indsutrial crops like hamp, soybean and sunflower. The agriculture influenced the development of cattle-breeding, especially horse-breeding.

The biggest town of the region is Šabac. At the beginning of the 20th century it was called Small Paris due to its fast development, but later they called it Serbian Verden because of the damage during the First World War. Šabac was the first town in Serbia to have a hospital, pharmacy, music school, piano and foreign language teacher.

In Mačva, girls used to inform passers-by that there was a girl of marriageable age in the house in an original way. If a girl was old enough to get married she would make a rag doll, about 40 centimetres tall, dressed in red with white decorations, in order to attract young men's attention. She would put the doll on the inside part of a window, between two flowerpots. It was kept there until she was engaged to be married. If there were two girls of a marriageable age in the house, two dolls were made.