Pre-marital relations: Entering adulthood

Investigation was carried out in north-east Serbia, in the region which is known for more freedom in male, female relations and marriages between minors. To prepare children for early marriage, the community takes care to introduce them to the world of adulthood through customs and to speed up their sexual maturity. Thus, on certain holidays, freedom in the behaviour of the young and the possibility of their getting to know each other more intimately was the accepted and publicly approved custom, although at the same time the strict rules of patriarchal morals, which prescribed the submissiveness in the behaviour of youth in daily life, were valid.