From door to door: Christmas ritual processions of Serbs in Romania

The paper will present Christmas ritual processions among Serbs in the villages of the Romanian part of Banat. Available literature on this type of customary practice in Serbian villages in Romania, as well as material collected by the research team of The Institute of Ethnography SASA in the period from 2016 to 2024, as part of the project Researching the Culture and History of the Serbs in Romania, organized by the Center for scientific research on the culture of Serbs in Romania at the Association of Serbs in Romania (Timisoara) represent the basic sources in processing the topic. The work will be designed in such a way that within each ritual procession its basic elements are observed, as well as to point out the differences that occur within the different regional entities in the Romanian Banat. The aim of the work is to show the importance of these processions, as well as to point out their antiquity, but also their (un)sustainability within the Christmas customary practice.