A bullet hole decorates the roof of my grandma’s patio in North Macedonia—the neighbors had thrown a wedding the night before I first saw the gaping hole. “The last time someone shot a gun at a wedding here, an old woman suffered a head injury,” my uncle explained. “At least all of our heads are intact!” In the Balkans, celebratory gunfire is a common and normalized practice. In 2021, there were 125 reported celebratory shootings in the region, 84 of which took place during family gatherings. According to a survey, 80 percent of Serbian youth have seen celebratory shootings at weddings. It may be difficult for those who have never witnessed this phenomenon to imagine a context in which guns are instruments for expressing joy, but during many Balkan celebrations, the sound of laughter reverberates alongside the sound of bullets.
Celebratory gunfire is more than just a lighthearted tradition; it is a marker of the systemic legitimization of violence that permeates societies still healing from conflict. A report by South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC) found that celebratory gunfire is significantly more prevalent in Albania and the post-conflict ex-Yugoslav republics than in countries like Bulgaria, whose most recent conflict dates all the way back to World War II. Celebratory gunfire was banned during the communist era, but the practice became more prevalent as a result of growing political unrest and ethnic tension in the Balkans after the fall of communism. In Albania, celebratory gunfire became frequent after 1997 civil unrest and economic breakdown, while in North Macedonia, it proliferated in response to 2001 ethnic conflict. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, SEESAC notes that celebratory shootings tend to be more common in multi-ethnic communities, where decades-long tensions continue to fester.
The chaos that seized post-communist societies also led to sharp increases in rates of gun ownership. According to research by Small Arms Survey, there are currently 1,532,914 unregistered civilian firearms in Serbia, which equates to 39 per 100 people. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, there are 832,000 unregistered civilian firearms, or 31 firearms per 100 people. Celebratory shootings serve as an alarming reminder of how deeply entrenched violence is in the fabric of ex-communist societies. A citizen of Tetovo, North Macedonia, told local news that many people believe “a celebration doesn’t feel complete without using a firearm.”
The link between celebratory gunfire and post-conflict ideas of masculinity makes the practice especially difficult to curtail. Celebratory shootings are not only intended to express happiness and mark important events; they are often about asserting dominance, masculinity, and power. A SEESAC report reveals that 97.2 percent of firearm owners and 98.4 percent of firearm-related criminal offenders in Southeastern Europe are men. Moreover, most young people in Belgrade, Serbia, have witnessed celebratory gunfire at weddings and the birth of children, but the practice is especially common during the birth of a male child or the marriage of a son. In Roma communities in Northern Croatia, the “head” of the household—the oldest man—fires two gunshots to announce that a bride has escaped her family and will become his daughter-in-law. In other regions of Croatia, groups of men shoot their pistols to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter. The practice of celebratory gunfire persists because these displays of violence are not only normalized but also actively encouraged by norms of masculinity in post-conflict societies.
Governments and international organizations have attempted to alleviate the impact of celebratory gunfire by implementing strategies that prevent casualties from stray bullets. However, because campaigns like this fail to address the actual systemic problem with celebratory gunfire, they have been largely unsuccessful in mitigating the issue. For instance, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) campaign was launched in collaboration with Balkan governments in 2021 with the tagline “Every bullet has a target! Celebrate with your heart, not your gun!” In an interview about the campaign, North Macedonia’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Oliver Spasovski, cited the case of a 19-year-old girl who lost her life to a stray bullet after a New Year’s celebration in Skopje, North Macedonia. Addressing how the Ministry would prevent tragedies like this from occurring in the future, Spasovski emphasized that “the police act on every complaint filed, without exception” and that he was taking steps to reduce the proliferation of illegal weapons. While he acknowledged that the issue has “multifaceted causes,” Spasovski made only vague references to the “preventive and educational action” the Ministry would take to address the deep roots of celebratory gunfire.
The post-conflict reconstruction process has been a rocky road for Balkan societies. Studies show that those who suffered most from war in Bosnia and Herzegovina were less likely to obtain a secondary education. To this day, educational quality has failed to improve in North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Albania. Additionally, Balkan countries face gender disparities in work participation, political representation, and health. In Serbia, Albania, and Montenegro, 139 femicides were recorded from 2020 to 2023. Moreover, corruption continues to undermine democratic processes and hinder efforts for equality. This destabilized environment has allowed systemic violence to take root and poison societies from within, leaving communities without any tools for restoration and healing.
The normalization of celebratory shootings is the product of a social system that places value on domination, hierarchy, and force, and consequently normalizes all other forms of violence. Thus, ending the practice of celebratory shootings is not a question of stronger laws or their stricter implementation, as many laws that already exist theoretically protect civilians from stray bullets. Rather, it is a question of reversing social norms and rebuilding institutions that give rise to systemic violence in post-conflict societies. This will require mending the spheres that were most impacted by conflict, such as education, gender equality, and political stability. Above all, it will require a collective effort of holistic reconstruction rather than punitive government responses.
Celebratory gunfire is a remnant of the Balkans’ unstable past and serves as a reminder that conflict still shapes the reality of the region. For many people, a large-scale and longstanding legitimization of violence has detrimental impacts on everyday life. A man from Skopje shared the implications of celebratory shootings for his family: “There are instances where celebrations happen far away from you, on a totally different street…. whereas I find bullet shells in front of my doorstep. I have young kids who want to swim in the pool all day during the summer… I’ve told them to stay inside.” Violence has become a legitimate means of human interaction and community-building, distorting the meanings of joy and love. A crucial question arises: How can we celebrate with our hearts if we cannot discern between our hearts and our guns?