ESSAYS: THE RELIGION CARD

Religion has always played a crucial role in defining national identity in Serbia. Banned for so long, the Orthodox Church has recently seen a vigorous revival.

After more than a decade since the war in the Balkans had ended, religion has reached an almost institutional dimension that permeates a wide spectrum of Serbian society.

Novi Beograd is a neighbourhood of Belgrade, built in 1947 on the left bank of the Sava river, where about five hundred thousand people live together.
   
Religious paraphernalia portraying the Virgin Mary and the late Patriarch Pavle are displayed for sale outside the Djunis monastery.
   
A few thousand people took part in a rally to protest against the Gay Pride Parade in Belgrade, one day before the event was scheduled to take place.
     
  
Fans of Partizan Belgrade cheer during a football derby against their rivals from Red Star. Many of these hardcore supporters are associated with right wing organizations that often fight to preserve traditional Serbian values, built around Orthodox Christianity.
   
Five thousand policemen were deployed in the center of Belgrade to protect the gay parade, in an attempt by the Serbian government to prove their ability to protect citizen's rights. Hundreds of protesters tried to break through the police blockades.
  
A police car burns after it was set on fire by protesters after the Gay Pride Parade in Belgrade.
     
  
A woman and her daughter cover their faces after police shot tear gas during the anti-gay riots downtown Belgrade.
   
A woman cleans the face of an anti-gay protestor who has been hurt in clashes with police during the Gay Pride Parade in Belgrade, Serbia.
  
A cross next to the altar inside Velika Remeta, a monastery established in late 15th century on the Fruska Gora mountain. For centuries, monasteries have represented symbols of Serbian Orthodoxy and strongholds of Eastern Christianity in the region.
     
  
A monk reads before going to bed in an improvised cell in Velika Remeta monastery.
   
Monks chat on their way to lunch in Velika Remeta monastery.
   
Monks have a frugal lunch in Velika Remeta monastery.
     
  
Bee hives behind Velika Remeta monastery.
   
Thousands of people travelled from Belgrade to Pec, Kosovo, to attend the enthronement ceremony for the 45th Serbian Patriarch, Irinej. The Monastery of the Patriarchate of Pec has been the historical seat of Serbian Patriarchs for centuries.
  
Patriarch Irinej walks out of The Monastery of the Patriarchate of Pec after the enthronement ceremony.
     
  
Patriarch Irinej, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, talks to political and military leaders after the end of a religious ceremony dedicated to fallen soldiers.
  
Buildings in the crowded neighbourhood of Novi Beograd.
  
A member of the 1389 organization paints graffiti on a wall to protest against the arrest of some of his colleagues after the gay parade clashes. 1389, a group whose name derives from the year of the Kosovo battle, is often associated with nationalistic movements. They are strong believers and consider Orthodoxy a core element of Serbian identity.
     
  
A professor leads the chant during the evening prayer at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade. Confessional religious education was introduced, as an optional subject, in Serbian public school system, by a governmental regulation published in July 2001.
  
A student concentrates on the answer during an examination at the St. Arsenije High School in Sremski Karlovci. Established in 1794, St. Arsenije is the first Serbian clerical high school.
   
Students of the St. Arsenije High School participate in the evening prayer in the cathedral in Sremski Karlovci.
     
  
Children take a nap at an Orthodox kindergarten in Belgrade, watched over by a portrait of the previous head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Pavle. This is the only Orthodox kindergarten in the country and is considered and elite one, where parents pay a fee that is more than average to have their children taught religion, foreign languages and other subjects.
  
A child holds a cross during his baptism ceremony in a church in the village of Porodin.
  
A couple takes part in the wedding ritual at St. Michael's cathedral in Belgrade. The religious marital ceremony, one of the most important events in an Orthodox Christian's life, was forbidden during Tito's regime.
     
  
Believers outside Djunis monastery, one of the most popular places of pilgrimage for the Orthodox in Serbia. On the night of October 13th, before the feast of the Veil of Our Lady, people gather there and pray until sunrise.
   
Thousands of people take part in the religious ceremony at Djunis monastery.
   
At the end of the Djunis pilgrimage, many believe that those with a clean soul can spot the profile of the Virgin Mary in the horizon in the early hours of the morning.
     
  
People walk around St. Sava cathedral in Belgrade, the largest Orthodox cathedral in the Balkans and one of the largest Orthodox cathedrals in the world. It bears the name of Saint Sava, the founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
  
A woman prays inside St. Sava cathedral in Belgrade. Even though its construction began in 1935, the cathedral is still not completely finished due to the country's troubled history. Both the German occupiers and dictator Tito have put the construction works on hold.
  
A woman smokes a cigarette during a celebration party of the Slava, a Serbian Orthodox tradition that requires of each family to honor its own patron saint annually.
     
  
A woman dances during a celebration party of the Slava, a Serbian Orthodox tradition that requires of each family to honor its own patron saint annually.
   
People reach for bread blessed by a priest during a religious ceremony in the village of Porodin.
   
A man sits alone after his guests have left at the end of a dinner during a Slava celebration, in the village of Porodin.
     
  
The Danube river flows by the fortress of Petrovaradin in Serbia's second largest city, Novi Sad.