Week of Shrovetide Festivities Begins
Shrovetide festivities got underway on Saturday in the northeastern city of Ptuj, home to Slovenia's biggest carnival, famous for its distinctive figures - the kurenti. The festival will culminate with an international carnival procession on Sunday, 18 February.
Some 400 kurenti gathered in front of the Ptuj town hall, while the carnival prince took over from the mayor for the duration of the festivities. Meanwhile, local entrepreneurs, business executives and city councillors took part in a charity stew-making competition.
Performances by primary school pupils, street theatre, folk dance and carnival groups will perk up the historic centre of what is the oldest Slovenian town throughout next week. In the evening, merrymaking will continue daily in a special carnival hall.
While a procession for children was held on Saturday, the 47th international carnival procession was held the next day, on Sunday. The festivities will conclude with the burial of "pust" or the Shrovetide man in front of the town hall on Shrovetide Tuesday, 20 February.
The kurent is probably the most distinctive among some 150 traditional costumes preserved in Slovenia. The costume consists of sheep skins, girded with leather belts or chains that hold huge cow bells and handkerchiefs.
The headgear is a furry hat with a bright red tongue sticking out. Mounted on top are cow horns and two slender sticks decorated with feathers. Kurenti still perform the ancient function ascribed to the carnival time - chasing away winter - so they run around the fields ringing their cow bells to call in spring.
Apart from the Ptuj carnival, almost every Slovenian city and town hosts Shrovetide festivities. Among the larger ones, the event in the central Slovenian town of Cerknica is dominated by local witches.
Carnivals featuring traditional costumes are also held in Cerkno, in western Slovenia, and the Brkini, in the SW of the country, which is known for the colourful "skoromati'.
As is custom, the festivities in Cerknica will begin with the "sawing of the old hag" on Thursday, 15 February, when the local "dummies" traditionally take over after toppling the mayor. The highlight will be the procession of dormice, frogs, bats, primitive men, devils and witches on Sunday, 18 February.
Another major carnival procession will be held in Ribnica, not far from Cerknica, on 17 February. Apart from traditional costumes, the procession will feature figures ridiculing topical local and international events.
In Cerkno, a town in western Slovenia, "laufarija" features some 20 costumes, some of which are believed to originate from pagan rituals. The festivities begin the first Sunday after the New Year's, when the first costume, called "laufar", makes his appearance in the streets. Every Sunday new costumes appear, so that the group is complete on the Sunday before Shrovetide.
All of the lauferji will be on hand next Sunday, 18 February, for a trial in which Pust will be publicly condemned for all the vices and follies committed locally and in the country.
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