If you are walking through Belgrade on Orthodox Easter, you will notice that the streets are empty and that many shops are closed. That is because Easter and Christmas, are the most important Serbian Holidays.
It's time to spend with family in the home, with the traditional feast. If you are invited to spend Easter in a friends home in Belgrade, here's what you have to know.
Traditional food in Serbia for Easter is some kind of meat and vegetables (usually potatoes), homemade bread called pogača and delicious cookies.
Basket with easter eggs are the center of the table.
Eggs are boiled, then painted with different colors and decorated with little pictures are hand painted.
The host will offer one to you, and then asked you to crush it. You are holding the egg in the hand, and the host taps it with the tip of his egg. Then you do the same with his egg. If your egg cracks on both sides, you lose. If you break the hosts egg on both sides, you win. If the one on your side is cracked and one of the host side is cracked also - it's a tie.
There is a different way to say hello on Easter day in Serbia. You will hear everyone who comes to say: „Hristos voskrese“, and they respond: „Vaistinu voskrese“. If you don't know the Serbian language at all, don't try to say it, it's very difficult to pronounce it. But at least you will know what it means when you hear it, and you will hear it all day long.
There are a lot of other customers for this holiday, but these are the most important that you have to know if you are visiting a friend for Easter day.
