The Serbian At the turning of the 19th and 20th centuries the Serbian community was a social stratum possessing determining economy and autonomous cultural institutions. The welfare of the members is shown by the spreading rustic middle-class buildings instead of the middle-class Hungarian ones from the lowlands. This time the indoor world of Serbian homes was featured by the furniture that shows strong civil likes and was made by masters. The ethnic specialities of their home culture were fulfilled in the clean room which had representative functions. The objects of folk religions and grace received special attention here, like icons of pravoslavonian saints such as Saint Nicholas, Christening Saint John, Saint Czirjék, Saint Demeter, the woollen and cotton homespun which expresses the taste, knowledge and hard-work of the lady and the daughter of the house. From this aspect the homes of the people in Battonya show relative features with the Serbian homes along the river Maros. Icons (ikona) are the most important objects of the family’s patron saint cult. Serbians would not celebrate the name days of the members of the family but they do emphasize to celebrate the days of their patron saints (sveèar). On this strongly considered day the relative families feast with singing and dancing and they also see their neighbours and unexpected visitors with pleasure. The icon is usually placed in the clean room at an emphasized place usually above the parallel beds. The high point of the feast is the consecration of the icon portraying the patron saint of the family. The rich ones had the inevitably important picture painted by a specialist but an oleograph, bought at the market, was enough for the poor. Until the middle of the 20th century all resources of hemp and flax processing can be found in the houses of Serbians of Battonya. Their outstanding folk art of textile reached its highpoint in "száda" (sadi bez). A number of clothes and home textiles were made from this traditionally white homespun by the Serbians of Battonya. Rich embroidery (vez) was applied on the chest area of the shirts and women’s underware (muške i ženske košulje) that were sewed from this very thin textile by dressmakers. These embroideries were created from golden, silver thread or white silk by specialist women that is shown by the masterpieces remained from the first decades of the 20th century. Also the embroidery specialists made and decorated the early taken off pieces of women’s clothing, the blue or purple velvet bonnets (kapa), which were embroidered with gold or silver. Sometimes the silk kerchiefs (svilena marama), made from manufactured cloth, were decorated with embroidery. The home-decorating function of textile is an element of tradition that can be followed from the Middle Ages. White home textiles eased the mood of the mostly dark brown furniture of the Serbian farmhouses in Battonya: the embroidered ornamental bed sheets and tablecloths (èaršav), curtains (firanga) and towels (peškir).These objects embellished their lives and also raised the highlight of feasts. Even nowadays it is a tradition to give a roll of snow white "száda" to the priest on the days of the church’s patron saint or to the functionaries, brother-in-law (kum) and the best man (stari svat) on the occasion of wedding ceremonies. Ornamental towels for horses (peškir na konje) were put on the equipage by the hardworking but also pomp liking Serbians, emphasizing the importance of the event. In the clean rooms colourful, painted woollen carpets could be found (æilim) which were made with kelim technology by the masters of Bánát. These carpets were still popular to cover the decoratively made bed. Only some esteemed attractive objects in the homes of Serbian families in Battonya, remained from family heritage, reminds to the rich textile culture by the beginning of the 20th century.
	Extract from the permanent ethnographical exhibition, called Identity, Difference, Diversity: Serbians