Customs are being preserved in the Serb returnee village Smoljana near Bosanski Petrovac.

The event The First Scythe of Grmeč was held there.

About thirty scythemen of various generations from Srpska, Federation of BiH and Serbia competed in five categories.

The first scythe of Grmeč for the eighth time is Mirko Kecman.

– The secret of good success is hard work and that I inherited scything from childhood. As a child, I started scything with my father and it cannot be learned in a month or two, it has to be learned throughout life – says Mirko.

Scything used to be one of the most important field works on Grmeč.

This competition preserves the memory of ancestors and their way of life.

– The main goal of this event is to prolong the life, to extend the duration of that scythe, on which our ancestors depended, on which they fed their families – said Danilo Kecman, a member of the Organizing Committee of the First Scythe of Grmeč.

Pioneers and juniors and veterans competed at the First Scythe of Grmeč in Smoljana.

Source and photo: RTRS