This is a collection of published articles about the phenomena of “Lapot” – a kind of tradition of senicide, where Serbian peasants would take their parent when they turned 60, and kill them by hitting them in the head, as they had become a burden.
“Morbid Customs from Serbia: When a Man Turns 60, His Son Takes Him into the Mountains and Kills Him with a Mallet or Axe”
Slobodna Dalmacija, March 14, 2017
The article says that the old Serbian expression “zreo za sekirče” (“ripe for the axe”) supposedly remained as a reminder of an ancient custom known as lapot.
According to the article, lapot was a form of senicide in which a man who reached the age of sixty was regarded as a burden on his household and family. His son, or, if he had no son, his closest male relative, would take him into the mountains and ritually kill him. The killing could be carried out with a club, axe, or mallet, striking a loaf of bread which the old man held on his head.
The bread symbolized that the old person was no longer considered worthy of bread, and consequently no longer worthy of life, because he could no longer work and support himself. The article says that the custom allegedly survived until almost the end of the nineteenth century, when it was prohibited by law. It associates the practice particularly with eastern Serbia and the Dinaric region.
“‘Ripe for the Little Axe’”
PS-Portal, October 1, 2024
The article begins by explaining senicide, or geronticide, as the killing of elderly members of a community when they have become a burden. It stresses that although such practices have been attributed to many societies, it is often difficult to distinguish historical reality from myths and legends.
It then discusses lapot. According to the article, stories claim that senicide was practiced in parts of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It says that lapot may have originated among the ancient Dacians and subsequently been inherited by the Vlachs, before apparently being adopted by Slavic populations.
According to the story, the elderly person was given porridge or a loaf of bread on the head and then killed with an axe, wooden mallet, or club. The entire village allegedly attended the ritual. In Montenegro, the article says, a related ritual was known as pustevovanje, with a bundle of wool placed on the victim’s head.
The article explicitly notes that the historical existence of Serbian lapot is disputed. Early Serbian anthropologists and ethnologists, including Tihomir Đorđević and Sima Trojanović, accepted its existence, whereas Serbian anthropologist Bojan Jovanović argues that there is no evidence that the ritual actually existed and considers it a myth incorporated into popular tradition.
Nevertheless, the article says that lapot survives in popular tradition and in expressions such as “zreo za sekirče” (“ripe for the little axe”).
“‘Ripe for the Axe’: This Expression Comes from a Serbian Custom That Still Freezes the Blood”
Srbija Danas / SD.rs, January 18, 2022
The article explains the Serbian expression “zreo za sekiru” (“ripe for the axe”) through the story of lapot.
It describes the alleged custom as one in which elderly people who had become unable to work were considered a burden. According to the tradition presented, they could be taken away and killed by members of their own family.
A central element of the story is the loaf of bread or pogača placed on the old person’s head. The person carrying out the killing would strike the bread with an axe or another implement. The symbolic explanation was that the bread, rather than the son or relative, was responsible for the death.
The article presents lapot as an extremely old Serbian custom and connects the expression “ripe for the axe” with this tradition. It also recounts the familiar story of an old man being taken away by his son and the tragic inheritance of the custom from one generation to another.
“Morbid Customs from Serbia: When a Man Turns 60, His Son Takes Him into the Mountains and Kills Him with a Mallet or Axe”
Hrvatska udruga Benedikt, March 15, 2017
This article carries the same title and substantially the same account as the Slobodna Dalmacija article.
It says that “zreo za sekirče” survived as a Serbian expression referring to the alleged ancient practice of lapot. A sixty-year-old man supposedly became a burden to his household. His son or closest male relative would take him into the mountains and ritually kill him, using a club, axe, or mallet against a loaf of bread placed on his head.
The article interprets the bread as symbolizing the old person’s inability to contribute economically to the household.
“In Serbia, 11 Centuries Ago, Parents Were Killed When They Reached 60!”
Knjaževačke novine, June 6, 2016
The article states that the Serbian expression “zreo za sekirče” remained as a reminder of an ancient period when Serbs allegedly practiced the extremely morbid custom called lapot.
It defines lapot as the killing of one’s parents by stoning or with an axe when they reached sixty because they were no longer able to contribute to the household and family.
The article says that the practice was particularly prevalent in eastern Serbia. Sixty-year-olds were allegedly killed by their sons or relatives while the entire village attended.
According to the article, a village herald would go from house to house announcing:
“Lapot is at such-and-such a house; come to the memorial gathering.”
It says that different methods were used. In parts of eastern Serbia, an old person could allegedly be beheaded with the blade of a plough, or killed with a stick. In some villages, a piece of bread made from corn flour was placed on the old person’s head before the killing, accompanied by the words:
“We are not killing you; this bread is.”
The article further says that some elderly people supposedly accepted their fate because they believed that a better life awaited them after death, even blessing their sons and wishing that they too would live long enough to experience the same fate.
Finally, it says that whether lapot was myth or reality, expressions such as “finished for the stick” or “finished for the axe” were still used in places such as Veliki Izvor near Zaječar to describe an old and incapable person.
“‘On the Bread Be Thanks, but Off Goes the Head’: The Serbian Custom of Killing Elderly Parents”
Stav
The article presents lapot as the killing of elderly family members once they could no longer work and contribute to the material needs of the household.
According to its account of Tihomir Đorđević’s writings concerning the surroundings of Zaječar, the killing was allegedly performed with an axe or stick, with the entire village invited to attend. In some places cornmeal porridge was placed on the victim’s head before the killing, symbolically suggesting that the corn, rather than the people, was killing the old person.
The article asks about the origins of the practice and proposes that some historians have considered the possibility that Serbs inherited it from Vlachs. It then associates the Vlachs with the ancient Dacians and presents lapot as possibly related to ancient pagan human-sacrifice rituals.
It further claims that the practice of eliminating elderly, sick, helpless, and supposedly useless family members survived among Serbs for a very long time, allegedly into the early twentieth century. It gives additional stories involving Serbian historical figures and describes lapot as a public ritual in which the killing could be announced throughout surrounding villages.
The article says that after the killing, relatives and villagers gathered for prayers and a communal feast, with music, singing and dancing. It also states that in the Pirot region relatives and neighbours allegedly participated directly in striking the victim.
The article cites Sima Trojanović, Vojislav Radanović, Dušan Bandić and Ivan Kovačević as writers who discussed the subject.
“Karakaš’s Lesson”
Kamenjar, May 2, 2019
This article discusses the Croatian writer Damir Karakaš and his use of the lapot motif in literature.
Karakaš reportedly said that he had first heard about lapot as a child. In the version he describes, a son places a hot loaf of bread on his father’s face and strikes the bread with the blunt side of an axe, saying that the bread should kill him.
The article states that Karakaš researched customs in Lika and surrounding areas, while also referring to the Serbian lapot tradition.
It then mentions a literary reconstruction of an alleged final recorded case of lapot in Serbia in 1883, in the village of Zjapin, where Mitar Stojnin supposedly killed his father Petko. The article says that the story was reconstructed as literature and received a prize at the Interfer international reportage festival in 2014.
It again identifies “zreo za sekirče” (“ripe for the axe”) as the Serbian expression supposedly preserved as a reminder of lapot.
“When One Must Die – LAPOT: When Descendants Sacrifice Their Parents”
Magija Istočne Srbije
The article calls lapot one of the most frightening ancient rituals and describes it as the killing of elderly and helpless members of a family by their sons or close relatives, in the presence of other villagers.
It explains the alleged economic motivation by saying that, under conditions of poverty and difficult living conditions, elderly people could become unable to contribute and therefore become a burden to their families.
It also gives a religious explanation. According to the article, ancient beliefs about the dead and ancestors held that deceased ancestors protected their living descendants. Those who died before becoming completely weakened by old age were believed to possess stronger souls and therefore greater powers of protection.
The article says that elderly people were usually killed with axes, sticks or clubs. Before their death, they could allegedly bless their sons, saying that the sons should live long enough to reach old age and that their own sons should eventually send them into the next world in the same manner.
In some places bread was placed on the old person’s head, while the executioner supposedly said:
“We are not killing you; this bread is.”
The article explains this as a way of transferring responsibility for the death from the individual to the object, because people supposedly feared revenge from the dead person’s soul.
It also notes that lapot has inspired Serbian artists, including Goran Paskaljević’s 1972 film Legenda o lapotu and Živojin Pavlović’s novel Lapot.
Importantly, the article itself says that the custom lies on the boundary between myth and reality and that its historical existence remains disputed among scholars. It states that the richest material concerning lapot was collected in eastern Serbia during the nineteenth century.
“Superfluous Mouths”
Miljenko Jergović
Jergović’s essay discusses the concept of the elderly person becoming a “superfluous mouth” within a household.
In his account of the Serbian lapot tradition, an elderly person who could no longer contribute economically was supposedly regarded as unnecessary. The family would take the person away and the person’s own son would perform the killing.
The story is used to illustrate a wider theme: the transformation of old age from a respected stage of life into a perceived economic burden. Lapot consequently becomes not merely a story about killing the elderly, but a metaphor for the relationship between usefulness, poverty, family responsibility and old age.
The article connects the Serbian expression “ripe for the axe” with this tradition.
“The Most Morbid Serbian Custom: Sons Killed Their Fathers – ‘Ripe for the Axe’”
Dnevno.hr
The article presents lapot as an alleged Serbian custom in which elderly parents were killed by their own descendants once they were considered too old to contribute to the household.
Its title focuses on the expression “zrele za sekirče” (“ripe for the axe”) and on the story of Mitar. The article uses the dramatic narrative in which an elderly father is taken away to be killed by his son.
The central episode involves the fear that Mitar will not strike his father hard enough. The older man tells him, in effect, that he must strike properly, because the act is supposed to be completed. The story then acquires a generational dimension: the grandson witnesses the killing and is implicitly being prepared for the possibility that he will one day have to perform the same act.
The article therefore presents lapot not simply as killing but as an alleged inherited social obligation passed from father to son.
Sources and articles
- Telegraf. “Surovi lapot: U Srbiji pre 11 vekova ubijali roditelje kad napune 60 godina?” April 6, 2014.
Telegraf — “Surovi lapot” - Knjaževačke novine. “U Srbiji pre 11 vekova ubijali roditelje kad napune 60 godina!” June 6, 2016.
Knjaževačke novine — “U Srbiji pre 11 vekova…” - Slobodna Dalmacija. “Morbidni običaji iz Srbije: Kad muškarac navrši 60 godina, sin ga odvede u brdo i ubije maljem ili sjekirom.” March 14, 2017.
Slobodna Dalmacija — “Morbidni običaji iz Srbije” - Politika. “Ima li koga.” March 20, 2019.
Politika — “Ima li koga” - Kamenjar. “Karakašev poučak.” May 2, 2019.
Kamenjar — “Karakašev poučak” - Novi Glas. “Lapot između legende i stvarnosti: Da li je u Srbiji postojao običaj ubijanja starih?” February 13, 2022.
Novi Glas — “Lapot između legende i stvarnosti” - Informer. “Surovi obred sprovodio se i u Srbiji! Ubistvo starih i bolesnih bilo inspiracija za umetnike.” May 24, 2022.
Informer — “Surovi obred sprovodio se i u Srbiji!” - Srbija Danas. “‘Zreo za sekiru’: Ovaj izraz potiče od običaja u Srbiji od kojeg se danas ledi krv u žilama.” January 18, 2022.
Srbija Danas — “‘Zreo za sekiru’” - Glossy / Espreso. “Šta je LAPOT, najjeziviji običaj iz prošlosti?” August 30, 2023.
Glossy — “Šta je LAPOT” - PS-Portal. “‘Zreli za sekirče.’” October 1, 2024.
PS-Portal — “‘Zreli za sekirče’” - Jergović, Miljenko. “Suvišna usta.” May 14, 2024.
Miljenko Jergović — “Suvišna usta” - Magija Istočne Srbije. “Kad mora da se ’mre — LAPOT, kad potomci žrtvuju roditelje.”
Magija Istočne Srbije — “Kad mora da se ’mre”
