Saturday, May 14, 2011

Serbs and drinking

Serbs are known as people who love partying. In any Serbian town, especially Belgrade and Novi Sad, wonderful and extraordinary parties are held every now and then. Needless to say that the general feel is extremely convivial. However, there is an inclination towards seeing Serbs as heavy drinkers, which refers to both men and women.
First of all, there definitely is a shred of truth in this stereotype. Namely, Serbs love any kind of social events which, of course, include consumption of alcohol. There have been cases of drunken brawls in Serbian bars and clubs. Still, it would be too harsh to call Serbs “heavy drinkers”. I know from personal experience that in other countries (Greece and Hungary in particular) people drink much more frequently. Additionally, in Greece there were so many deaths due to drinking, especially among teenagers. Not to mention fierce fights (some of which I witnessed in Greek and Hungarian clubs) and breaking of chairs and tables. It’s not that I’m saying that such things don’t happen in Serbia, they do, but compared to these incidents mentioned above, it is milder. Apart from that, alcoholic beverages are all around us, in the entire world, thus it sounds rather magnifying to call Serbs, or any other nation, “drinking nation”, since there are alcohol-lovers all around the world, not just in several countries.
In the end, it is worth noting that Serbian people are, generally speaking, very vivacious and jolly fellows, who love to drink, sometimes to excess. However, it is important to remember that alcohol has always been part of human life in almost every culture, therefore, Serbs are, quite naturally, not the only nation that enjoys drinking.

No comments:

Post a Comment