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Cultural background

 Icons as Portals 

 

  An icon is an image of another reality, of a person, time and place that is more real than here and now. Icons were never meant to be worshiped or venerated as something holy in themselves. The reverence shown to an icon must be done with the understanding that it is not the icon or artwork itself we are respecting, but rather the person or event it portrays. An icon is meant to be a window into the spiritual world, used to help us contemplate spiritual matters or to put us into a prayerful frame of mind, as a reminder of events in the Bible, the life of Christ and the Saints, but never as an object of worship.

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The word Icon is derived from the Greek Eikon, meaning an image. Byzantine Icons are popularly known as the art of Eastern Orthodox Christianity (that is, the branch of Christianity which is particular to Byzantium, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Jordan, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Russia). But they are also much more. Graphically, they illustrate religious or patriotic stories from the Bible, the Chronicle, the lives of saints and other Christian sources. Byzantine Icons are both images of a more perfect world which Christians believe is present in or behind the world we can sense, and objects of prayer and veneration.

Tito's Pioneers

At the beginning of the Cold War, Socialist Yugoslavia pursued a policy of neutrality . We were living in the best country in the world as we had all the freedom; we did not have to work to support capitalism on one side and on an other we were actually free from hard line communism of Eastern European bloc.

Socialist youth in Yugoslavia was growing up as a part of big organisation Socialist Youth Union of Yugoslavia – Tito's Pioneers. Every year pioneers – children of certain age would pass their pioneers pledge at the ceremony and became part of youth of Yugoslavia – something that we all share and in some strange way connected every single child across the country.

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Patriarchi

        Patriarchy is a social system in which males hold primary power, predominate in roles of social leadership and privilege, moral authority and control of property. In the domain of the family, fathers or father-figures hold authority over women and children.

    This system belongs to the past in this day and age, however, in Serbia bits of patriarchy continues to exist, mainly in family life. Woman are almost taking the role of superwomen; to be a mother, a wife, professional women but there is always an understanding who is in charge and that is not a woman.

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