did you know that the word 'carnival' origins in latin 'carnum levare', which means 'to let go of meat' or 'to let go of flesh'? this meaning is very chatolical, though it is believed that carnival is a much much older holiday. it marks the time of the year when just a moment of crazy, ecstatic happiness is allowed, because the winter is slowly coming to an end, but there are still several cold months ahead. it's the outburst of hope that has to be quickly tamed again, as spring is still far away.
in slovenia, we have quite some interesting carnival traditions, but the most intriguing of them all is the 'kurent', a monstrous creature from another world, dressed up in sheep skin, with big horns and colourful ribbons, jumping from side to side, ringing five cowbells. a group of kurents is often accompanied by a devil dressed in red. the arrival of kurents always announces the beginning of a new life, a new season, and the end of old winter.
in the old days, only unmarried men were allowed to dress up as kurents. they are the manifestation of life force and fertility, similar to bakh or the satyrs. kurent is not a god, more of a demon, but two-faced, good and evil at the same time.
we also have several modern stories about kurent, who has obviously inspired a lot of writers, one of them being slovenia's best known literate ivan cankar. The stories are all very similar: kurent is a protagonist, differenet from his people, who therefore despise and exclude him. his is a sad existence until he meets a girl and falls in love. but the people are jealous and do not approve of his happiness. they kill the girl. kurent starts to play the violin, leaves his home town and travels the world, enchanting people with his music and then killing them as revenge for the death of his beloved.
and there, i think, we have the main characteristic of carnival: happiness mixed with saddnes, mercy mixed with cruelty, good mixed with evil, life mixed with death. carnival celebrates the opposites, winter and spring, the end and the beginning.
Saturday, 18 February 2012
Related Posts : kaj zakaj,
language,
seasons
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment