CroV – Udruga hrvatske omladine u Vojvodini / Croatian Youth Organization in Vojvodina
Contact info
Bele Gabrića 21
24000 Subotica
Serbia
Facebook
Foundation: 2001
Member since: 2003
Number of minority members
Approximately 60,000 or 0,8% population of Serbia
Settlement area
Naimly north of Serbia, province Vojvodina. But also capital Belgrade. In Vojvodina mostly in northern Bačka region. The seat of institutions is in city of Subotica.
History
During the 15th century, Croats mostly lived in the Syrmia region. During 17th century, Roman Catholic Bunjevci from Dalmatia migrated to Vojvodina, where Šokci had already been living. Šokci might be descendants of medieval Slavic population of Vojvodina who mainly spoke ikavian dialect, which is today rather associated with standard Croatian. Between 1689, when the Habsburg Monarchy conquered parts of Vojvodina, and the end of the 19th century, a small number of Croats from Croatia also migrated to the region. Before the 20th century, most of the Bunjevac and Šokac populations living in Habsburg Monarchy haven’t been nationally awakened yet. Subsequent statistical estimations from the second half of the 19th century counted Bunjevci and Šokci as “others” and presented them separately from Croats.
In Syrmia, which was then part of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, according to the 1910 census results Croats were a relative, absolute majority or had significant representation in many villages and settlements.
In 1925, Bunjevac-Šokac Party and Pučka kasina organized in Subotica the 1000th anniversary celebration of the establishment of Kingdom of Croatia, when in 925 Tomislav of Croatia became first king of the Croatian Kingdom. Besides Subotica, memorial plaques of King Tomislav were also revealed in Sremski Karlovci and Petrovaradin.
In 1990s, during the war in Croatia, members of Serbian Radical Party organized and participated in the expulsion of the Croats in some places in Vojvodina. According to some estimations, the number of Croats which have left Serbia under political pressure of the Milošević’s regime might be between 20,000 and 40,000.
Special customs and traditions
Specific tradition of Bunjevac Croatians in Vojvodina, Serbia, is Dužijanca. It is a celebration ending the harvest; it was permeated with a spiritual religious dimension, given that it originated from the Bunjevac Croat farming families, expressing a feeling of gratitude towards God for the picked crops. Nowadays, Dužijanca is a city event that starts in April with the act of blessing the harvest, and it ends by the end of August with a parish festival in Bunaric and which comprises about twenty events in Subotica and the neighboring villages, having their own Dizijanca celebrations and are guided by Bandaš and Bandašica (the Queen and King of Duzijanca) who have been chosen prior to the event.
Organisation
The mission of the youth organisation is to activate youth of Croats in Vojvodina for individual and collective development. The aims are that through organizing various events and gatherings, lobbying, advocating and launching initiatives fills its mission.
Fun Facts/Celebrity/Jokes/Sayings
Balint Vujkov (Subotica, 26 May 1912 – Subotica, April 23, 1987) is a Croatian writer, collector and writer of Croatian folk works from Vojvodina and neighboring states, storyteller and novelist. He has dramatized numerous folk tales he collected and wrote. They have been collected in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania (Karachi Croats), Czech Republic, Vojvodina, Austria, Croatia (in Lika) and Kosovo for 55 years. In addition to the Croatian, he also wrote folk works by Serbs from Hungary and Romania. By the importance of his collecting work, some specialists put their level with the brothers Grimm and Vuk Karadžić. He was a poet, storyteller, fairy tale writer, fantastic story, drama, publicist, polemic, essayist, novelist, initiator and editor of a number of literary journals, newspapers and folk calendars. He was a lawyer by profession and worked in the service of legal aid, and as a judge of the Subotica district court.
A woman is like a shadow, if you run for it, it will be always running in front of you. If you run in front of her, she will run after you.
Its easier to stop the rain but the girl who sought to marry.
If you can not be famous and rich, you can be honest and good.
Rich is who is not in need, young is who is healthy.
Where there is a path, do not go astray.
Also in a rusted barrel sometimes can be a good wine.
If you answer hatred with hatred, how will hatred end?
It is better to have loved and lost it, than never to love at all.
Who is not satisfied with small, does not deserve greater.
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