page_title: Sorbs
section_title: Region of Upper Lusatia
hierarchical_section_title: Sorbs / Regions of Lusatia / Region of Upper Lusatia
caption_attribution_description: English: Historical coat of arms of Upper Lusatia. It is similar to the coat of arms of the city of Bautzen. The original city coat of arms was later also used for all of Upper Lusatia.
context_page_description: Sorbs are a West Slavic ethnic group predominantly inhabiting Lusatia, a region divided between Germany and Poland. Sorbs traditionally speak the Sorbian languages, which are closely related to Polish, Kashubian, Czech, and Slovak. Sorbian is an officially recognized minority language in Germany. Sorbs are linguistically and genetically closest to the Czechs and Poles.
  Under German rule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, policies were implemented in an effort to Germanize the Sorbs. These policies reached their climax under the Nazi regime, who denied the existence of the Sorbs as a distinct Slavic people through referring to them as "Sorbian-speaking Germans", and persecuted them fiercely. Due to a gradual and increasing assimilation between the 17th and 20th centuries, virtually all Sorbs also spoke German by the late 19th century and many of the current generation no longer speak the Sorbian language. The community is divided religiously between Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism. The former Prime Minister of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich, is of Sorbian origin.
context_section_description: Catholic Lusatia encompasses 85 towns in the districts of Bautzen, Kamenz, and Hoyerswerda, where Upper Sorbian language, customs, and tradition are still thriving. In some of these places (e.g., Radibor or Radwor in Sorbian, Crostwitz or Chrósćicy, and Rosenthal or Róžant), Sorbs constitute the majority of the population, and children grow up speaking Sorbian.
  On Sundays, during holidays, and at weddings, people wear regional costumes, rich in decoration and embroidery, encrusted with pearls.
  Some of the customs and traditions observed include Bird Wedding (25 January), Easter Cavalcade of Riders, Witch Burning (30 April), Maik, singing on St. Martin's Day (Nicolay), and the celebrations of Saint Barbara’s Day and Saint Nicholas’s Day.
caption: Coat of arms of Upper Lusatia, as drawn by Hugo Gerard Ströhl
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