Dreams in the Beliefs and Customs of the Timok Region Inhabitants

Folkloristics 9/1 (2024)
Author: Dejan Krstić
Text:

Ethnographic material from the Timok region in eastern Serbia about beliefs and customs related to dreams is presented in this paper. The material comprises of sporadic notes of the authors in the course of the last three decades. There are five registered dream types related to beliefs and customs in the Timok region, and three of those types are presented in the paper: 1. dreams foretelling future events, 2. dreams which are a sort of ban violation punishment, 3. dreams in which close dead people appear again and again, which is a burden for the dreamer. Dreams foretelling future events are divided into: 1. dreams foretelling death, 2. dreams foretelling death or some other great misfortune, 3. dreams foretelling some other bad situations, 4. dreams foretelling something good, 5. weather-related dreams. Ethnographic notes are supported by the statements of the narrators speaking in the dialect of the said region (timočko-lužnički dialect).

Keywords: Timok region, dreams, foretelling, death, weather predicting.