Seoski sastanci mladih (prela)
Village Meetings of the Youth (Prela)

Summary/Abstract: The author has divided the review of village meetings of the youth into two wholes: in the first part of the article she defines the term prela and other terms of related meaning and determines the typology of prela according to the participants and the purpose of meetings; in the other, the entertaining part of prela is described, through a review of different jokes, songs, music, dance, riddles and games. The analysis of the collected data has shown that prela from Lika abound in numerous games. Some of them appear in several areas of Lika in various regional variants, while other games are specific only for certain areas. The author gives a review of all games represented at prela from Lika and she identifies them regionally according to the data available so far. The games, which tolerate a more unrestrained conduct of the youth, are singled out. This phenomenon is especially characteristic for Bunjevci area in Lika, which is an interesting indicator, because this custom has related elements to the custom of liganje in western Herzegovina. Therefore, it is possible that this game is a part of traditional heritage, which was brought to this area by Bunjevci during their movements towards western Croatian regions in the 17th century. Village meetings of the youth with the purpose of get-acquainted, which consist of a working and entertaining parts, belongs to the old Slavic heritage which is particularly represented with eastern Slavs. This custom in its basic form, most often called prelo, has been best and, it seems the longest, preserved in Lika. This also shows the synthesized review of this custom.

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