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The annual festivals mark the Shrovetide (Tuesday before Ash Wednesday - initiating the forty day period before Easter). They are celebrated for ten days up to Shrove Tuesday. |
This period of the year is celebrated throughout central and western Europe, and is called "carnival“. Carnival is also enjoyed throughout all of Slovenia. There are more than 170 different traditional characters and masks in Slovenia. They all have a similar purpose: to chase away winter and bring the prospect of an abundant harvest. |
Each region has its own characters. One of them is for instance the “PUST” who personifies winter and is guilty for all the bad deeds in the town during the last year, so it is executed according to a precisely defined script. |
Kurents are the most popular carnival figures in Slovenia. According to legend, they chase away winter with their bells and woo spring, but they are also famous for chasing girls. |
Kurent, also known as Korant, is the central figure in Kurentovanje, a rite of spring and fertility which may date to the time of the ancient Slavs. Kurent has been mentioned as a god in Slovenian folk-mythology. |
The Kurents - formed in groups - are dressed in sheepskins with cowbells dangling from their belts or chains. On their heads they wear huge furry caps decorated with feathers, sticks or horns and colored streamers. The leather face masks have eye-holes outlined in red, long trunk-like noses and enormous red tongues that hang down to the chest. They wear hair made from horse-tails. |
The Kurents move from house to house in procession. They continually whirl and jump from side to side to sound the bells and chains they wear. Different and ancient customs prevail throughout the villages; such as: - before the Kurent arrives at the house the housewife throws a pot from the attic at the first person who visits her in the day. This is according to an old belief that this will help the hens to lay eggs. - The Kurents carry a basket to collect gifts from the households. - A devil (hudicc, zlodej, vrag) accompanies the Kurent, dressed in all black or red, and is covered by a net to catch souls, leads each group. - Young girls present Kurents with handkerchiefs which they then fasten to their belts, and housewives smash clay pots at their feet for luck and good health. |
As you can see I was pretty close to the Kurents while I was taking these photos and this is the last one I could take because they started to chase me. My surprised friends, that were politely standing off the road and watching the carnival, suddenly saw me running by, a group of Kurents right behind me… Fortunately they could not run very fast due to their heavy costumes and I got away safe and sound. Fortunately!!! |