However, due to high levels of unemployment and strong family and community ties,
most of the people that do work tend to share their income with other family members
who are struggle to find work. In this way entertainment and spending money on non-essentials
is uncommon, but does exist, particularly in the cities. Since there is little money
to be spent on recreation and, more importantly, because of such strong family ties,
free time, on both evenings and weekends (Saturday-Sunday) is generally spent with
family.
Identity
In Bosnia & Herzegovina, the people primarily
identify by their religion, the Croatians are Catholic,
the Serbs are Orthodox, and the Bosniaks are Muslim. This
identity is so powerful, each group is willing to kill and die for it, despite the
declining participation in religious ceremonies by each group. Today cities remain
divided between Catholic and Muslim, Muslim and Orthodox, Orthodox, and Catholic
and none are willing to cross that line in fear of physical harm. Oddly, the people
are very similar, if not identically on both an ethnic and linguistic level, but
again claim these ethnicities and languages to be distinct from each other. Despite
all the similarities, religion trumps all else, but due to different religions,
varying foods and cultural aspects have arisen, giving each of these three groups
a number of distinctions, which expand beyond just religion.