Kurentovanje - part 2

As stated earlier, we arrived SUPER early for the festivities, but this ensured us a good spot along the parade route. We were patient, there were things/people to look at, and eventually it started to get pretty crowded. A little witch (not in costume only) elbowed her way in next to me along with her mother, and continued to prod with said elbows for the next 30+ minutes or so. Now I wasn’t minding the crowd because a bit of body warmth was welcome, but the mother-daughter tag-team next to me was out to inflict internal injuries.

Then the parade began and except for the occasional toe-crunch, I was able to forget about them for the most part.

The highlight of Kurentovanje is the presence of the Kurentov. The creature in the picture posted here is a “Kurent” or “Korant” - the main carnival figure. (Kurentov is the plural form in Slovene for “Kurent”, or at least I think it is. I'm sure if more Slovenes read this blog there would be a correction posted in comments before you could even finish reading this sentence.) You can click HERE after you finish reading and see more pictures of the parade.

The carnival in Ptuj is the largest and oldest carnival in Slovenia, and it is named after the Kurent. It’s also a traditional carnival figure in other neighboring parts of Slovenia, and we also saw some similar figures from other countries, too.

Although the costumes vary slightly from one group to another, the general costume is made up of a massive sheepskin coat, and around the waist there is a chain with huge (and LOUD!) bells. They also wear heavy boots, and sometimes wear furry sheepskin gaiters (think Ugg boots), and their head is covered by a giant mask. The mask is also made of sheepskin and is about two feet tall, at least. Many of the masks have horns on top, some real and some made of long twigs decorated with colored streamers – when the Kurentov dance in the parade they will sometimes run towards the people in the crowd (imagine a bull charging) and then the streamers fall all over you. They also have a large beak-like nose, complete with sheep’s wool nose hair (!) and tusks, which I thought made them look a bit like an Alaskan totem. They also carry a wooden club in their left hand. When they dance, the sound from the bells is deafening! The “purpose” of all this showing off is for the creature to chase away winter.

Traditionally, the Kurent's outfit used to be restricted only to unmarried men, but we even saw entire families of Kurentov, including lots of little boys (so cute in their furry costumes!) and even several women. I asked a woman how much her costume weighed and she confirmed it weighed 30 kilos (about 65 pounds), and I can’t imagine how hot it must be inside all of that sheepskin! Many pictures you’ll see of them dancing will show them without their heads, which makes them look even funnier –- kind of like oddly shaped chickens. Click HERE to see a short video -- I hope it will remain posted for a while. In case you don't see the 'play' button you should click on the word 'predvajaj' to play the video.

While we were in the castle we saw another tour group. They were speaking French but we did not know where they were from. Some of them were wearing Carnival costumes and were obviously here for The Event. We later saw them in the parade and noticed their banner advertised they were from Brussels, from some international carnival committee. Many of their group were dressed as red-and-white jesters, and the seeming-head of the group was an older gent wearing a cape and a hat with two extreeeeeeeeeeemely looooooooong pheasant (?) feathers. He was accompanied by a very robust-looking fellow dressed as a sort of a nobleman/king (picture Henry the 8th, but without the big turkey drumstick you’ll inevitably picture him holding.) He was was escorting two younger women, who inexplicably looked like they'd have preferred he brought the drumstick instead.

There were lots of other characters, too: There were wagons of people dressed as gypsies, with all of them drinking and smoking and holding ‘babies’ (even the ‘babies’ were smoking! No worries about political correctness here!). There were these incredibly frightening devils from Austria, with red faces contorted into gruesome gestures, giant horns and long black outfits, writhing their way along the parade route. There was a kurent group from Bulgaria with towering headpieces, MASSIVE bells, and large tusks. There were groups of young men dressed in black pants covered by a long white tunic, and over their shoulders were several plaid, paisley, or floral scarves – on their heads they wore large, triangular hats covered with flowers. Together they pulled a wooden plow, also decorated with flowers, and at the back of the plow there was a figure of a bride and groom, which would rotate as they walked. Women sowing seeds sometimes accompanied groups pf them, and they were occasionally chased by men cracking long rope whips, who would perform a sort of a dance. The *crack!* *crack!* sounded like a fireworks display, it was so loud! There were also people in various costumes (clowns, medieval costumes, etc).

There were also some people dressed as animals (cows, goats) The animals had a large cylindrical body, usually with two people inside, and (of course) a head and a tail. One animal -- a goat-- approached us, and my friends with the sharp elbows petted it for a minute, after which time it turned promptly round 180 degrees and peed on them! Right in their faces! And I saw the whole thing (including their priceless reactions). Granted, it was only water, and the mother was a good sport about it eventually, but the 10-or-11-year old witch girl was obviously MORTIFIED. And I laughed and laughed and laughed…

And I kept a wary eye on the cows when they came past later on.

Kurentovanje - part 1

On 18 Feb we went to our first Carnival celebration here. It was NOT disappointing! It seems to be a mixture of the typical Carnival pre-lenten hullabaloo mixed with a healthy dose of pagan celebrating designed to scare off winter. And anything that’s designed to scare off winter is a helluva good thing, of course. Well, now that you mention it, you’re correct in a meteorological sense when you say that we haven’t exactly HAD a winter this year, but let’s not split hairs. After standing parade-side for three-plus hours in 30-something degrees, our extremities were well-frozen and that’s close enough to winter for me (laugh away, cold-weather friends – our blood is thin again and you are clearly envious).

We arrived a bit too early for the parade, thanks to our largely ineffective translation of the festival event schedule, but at least this meant we got a very good parking spot. We also had a chance to tour the castle. The castle was well done, although not depicted as being as old as it actually is -- construction began in the early 1100’s but most of the rooms were represented as they would have been decorated during the seventeenth century. Besides the furnishings, also worth mentioning are the large ceramic stoves in every room. You can still see many of these stoves in homes today, usually covered with flat or very simply decorated ceramic tiles, but the tiles in the castle, and the stoves themselves, boasted very ornate decorations and were designed to complement the rooms.

The plaster carvings on the ceilings were fantastic and in great condition. There were loads of paintings, and although they weren’t done by any world-renown artists (unless you count the somewhat prolific ‘painter unknown’, who received most of the credit) they gave a visitor a wonderful idea of what people were wearing at the time, or at least what they thought was fashionable. In one building there were even pictures depicting people in their Carnival costumes; worth mentioning is the surprising fact that the native American costume enjoyed as much popularity back in the 1700s as it did at this year’s parties.

The tapestries were also well done, and given the chill of the day, a person could gain a real appreciation for such cozy wallpaper. Since it was an active residence fairly recently, the tapestries gave way to painted canvases and printed linen wall coverings in the other rooms. There was a lot of Asian influence in several of the rooms. In the room exhibiting the serving plates et al there were several very nice Chinese serving pieces, and even an impossibly small silk slipper. Yes, it WAS a strange juxtaposition next to the dinner plates, but even imagining a foot that small (4 inches at most) is strange enough, so why not?

I’ve posted some pictures from the museum, so you can check those out HEREwhile I find a bit of free time to work on my post about the parade and upload those pictures as well.

Take care ~S

Carnivale

..Today we're off to Ptuj. It IS pronounced just as you think it is, and although we enjoy going there just so we can tell people where we've been, this time we're going for carnivale. In case you're unfamiliar with it, carnivale is the Euro version of the Minneapolis winter carnival, which I'm sure was the inspriation for ALL other pre-lenten festivals great and small, right? (Minneapolis friends are nodding vigorously at this point).

Carnivale in Slovenia is called 'Maska', which is short for 'Maskarade'. In Ptuj, the oldest city in Slovenia, they celebrate in their own way and their festival is called 'kurentovanje'. Follow the link to learn about/gape at the kurentov. I've been told that their costumes weigh more than 60 lbs/30 kilos, so we're off to verify ;-)