Strnđanje is a Serbian erotic folk custom and tradition practiced in the territory of eastern Serbia, mainly in the community of Negotin and Timočka Krajina. A community in which early marriage is desirable tries, so to speak, to “prepare children for underage marriage” by accelerating their sexual maturation through customary practice and introducing them to the world of adults.
For this reason, on certain holidays, it was customary to establish and publicly approve the freer behavior of young people and their intimate acquaintance, although at the same time strict rules of patriarchal morality were in force, which required modesty in the behavior of young people in everyday life.
The customs of strnđanja on Beli Poklad – the second Tuesday after Easter, night parties in the mountains on Vespers Friday, and the like, are examples of premarital liberties that were traditionally held during certain annual holidays in the villages of northeastern Serbia. All of this took place in the spring period, usually at the transition from Lent to Lent and vice versa.
In the fall, when field work was finished, on a certain day, a holiday or a wedding, every boy was allowed to “make love” to any girl he wanted, or even to several girls, until morning. There was only one condition, that both of them agreed and that the rules be followed.
Screenshot from BBC
The name comes from the Romanian verb “Strnđanje”, which means to press, squeeze, and among the Vlachs in Serbia it has an additional meaning: to hug, to caress. It actually served as a pre-marital rehearsal for girls. As soon as the sun began to set, a dozen or so brides would suddenly leave the village cart and hide in a nearby grove.
There, leaning against a tree, they would wait to be found by the boys they had been playing with in the cart. The boys would come in groups, noisy and ready to joke. First, they would exchange a few humorous sentences with the girls, and then move on to what they had come for in the first place. The boys’ parents advised their sons to marry a girl who was fond of strangling, and to avoid one who no one wanted. However, it was not love without limits. The boy’s hand was not allowed to go beyond the woman’s waist.
Image from Blic.rs
The role of these customs in the traditional culture of the village is obvious – they should encourage young people to want to marry and have a family already in the first years of puberty. In this way, an attempt is made “to accelerate the sexual maturity of adolescents and enable early marriage according to the wishes of their parents.”
The fact that it did not happen, or was a real rarity, that a girl lost her virginity and became pregnant during these customs indicates that the rules were respected, and that the generally accepted pattern of behavior (“a girl must enter marriage innocently”) coincided with practice.
The customs described had the function of controlling sexual behavior. Namely, by allowing such contacts, a full sexual life was prevented, with well-known possible consequences. This allowed the moral norms of the wider community to survive and family interests to be satisfied. It also created the possibility for the early maturation of young people, as well as for the controlled satisfaction of their erotic needs and readiness to enter the adult world.”
Journalistic publications
An article from the Dnevnik.hr writes:
“Bizarre Serbian sexual custom – ‘strndžanje’
“A custom that existed in Serbia until recently – ‘strndžanje’ – is still remembered by some of the older residents of eastern Serbia, writes the Telegraf portal.
According to the Telegraf, strndžanje was reserved only for young people and represented a kind of premarital experience.
One of the bizarre Serbian sexual customs you’ve recently had the opportunity to read about is ‘strndžanje’. Here’s what it’s all about.
‘We sit, we talk, and when we tell everything, the guys drag us into the darkness,’ an elderly lady describes her experience. In the dark, everyone kissed and caressed each other. “
Telegraf.rs writes:
“THE TRUTH ABOUT SEX STRANDJAN: These people participated in the most bizarre custom in Serbia (VIDEO)
Since a lot of dust has been raised around the text about stroking, the most bizarre sex custom in Serbia , we decided to find out what it is actually about . The show “explosive”, for TV Prva, did a feature on snoring last year. Attached are the testimonies of older residents of Eastern Serbia, who tell us their first-hand experiences.
Snoring was reserved only for young people and represented a kind of premarital experience . Here is what those who experienced this custom say about it:
– We sit for a while, talk… and when everything is told, the guys drag us into the eclipse – Ljubica Đurić says, in her own way, from personal experience.
– The snot is… when he takes her (the girl) there… so the snot is there, that’s it. The boys come, give the girls candies and then drag her away into the dark – simply explains Dragoslava Stanković, who also remembers this interesting custom.
The snoring, apparently, was organized for the purpose of gaining premarital experience. Girls organized sit-downs, usually after hard autumn work, and of course they invited guys who courted them on that occasion, and then led them into the dark, where they kissed, groped and caressed each other . Here is how some of the men remember those events:
– Sometimes the girl was beautiful, so you would love to kiss her, and sometimes she was ugly like a gabar. Guys often avoided those pretty girls, because they pretend to be important and judge the guys, and the uglier girls don’t care – says Vitomir Ilić, recalling these gatherings.
The word cuddling comes from the Romanian language, and means hugging, that is, caressing . So, as the word itself says, young men and women kissed, hugged and caressed each other until dawn.
– The most important thing: That whole night, until before dawn, the girl hung out with all the boys, that is, all the girls with all the boys, they went around in a circle , so that when they get home they would have some idea of who would suit them best – explains the anthropologist, Zlatimir Pantić.
At large gatherings, young people sometimes made life decisions, because, if parents allow, of course, some marriages were born during gatherings. But what was not there were illegitimate children, because the whole event was under the control of strict moral rules.”
Documentary about Strnđanje
“They seduced man by bending, pretending to be clumsy”
References and articles
Bulletin of the Ethnographic Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts 2002-2003, No. 50-51, pp. 97-102, Premarital relations – entering the world of adults, Divac Zorica D. Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU), Belgrade, Ethnographic Institute
https://pressingtv.mk/magazin/strndzanje-i-snohachenje-ova-se-adetite-od-serijata-crna-svadba/
https://dnevnik.hr/vijesti/zanimljivosti/bizarni-seksualni-obicaji-iz-srbije—358023.html
Link to documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkxb3MBt5dE&t=1s
