Mass gatherings seen as political and cultural events, social dramas and spectacles

Abstract

In this work, ethnological research focuses on the daily events which move from ritual to spectacle and vice versa. Mass events in the Balkan region became social dramas and open air theatres of life, frequently with tragic consequence. My research into mass gatherings in Serbia over many years particularly in Belgrade, have been directed to the ritual and the symbolic mechanism of interpreting political and cultural events. Numerous experiences, the recollections of all the participants, were included in the discourse on interpretation of this phenomenon.