Traditional Croatian Carnival Masks:

Bell-Carriers from Bregi

Bit About Me & My Connection With Carnival

I was born in Rijeka, Croatia & all my life I lived in Opatija. So, I prefer to say that Opatija is my hometown. Both places have a strong & long carnival traditions. The big carnival procession for years was held in Opatija & here my parents pushed me into carnival when I was very young, just a little child of 2-3 years old...

Then later on when I was a boy I didn't like it so much cause of the noise & crowd but my parents persisted to take me with them to the processions. Then I was a teenager & suddenly I started to like it again cause of all that drinking, smoking, eating, dancing, sex & craziness what carnival brings & as a young man I really liked to experiment on myself with all those activities. I was often individually masking myself in a clown so that nobody could recognize me & then doing all kinds of naughty things.

During college & few years after I continued experimenting but I was much more involved in organizing carnival parties, workshops & performances. I was often changing the traditions & trying to create new traditions in order to attract younger people into carnival activities so that it doesn't die. Eventually I got a bit tired & my efforts were not recognized by the local community nor municipality so I stopped being so pro-active.

Nowadays, I don't eat meat for about 13 years nor fish for 9. I also stopped drinking, smoking or taking any drugs for more than 8 months. Cause of my consciousness, I don't even want to have sex with just any beautiful girl I meet. I now have much higher standards of purity & I prefer to keep myself clean & not getting dirty with all outer energies of other people just to have some fun & ecstasy for a short period of time. I want to be happy & ecstatic now & every moment & lasting!

Young bell-carriers practicing & learning to inherit their fathers & preserve the tradition

Meaning Of The Word

In Latin "carnival" means "a festival of meat" so it is the time of meat consumption. In this sense meat also associates & presents human bodies involved in sex & all other low-vibes that I have previously written about. In Croatia during the carnival we like to say: "Every is allowed!", so it is really a crazy time.

In Croatian we use other words for carnival like: pust, maškare, poklade, fašnik & karneval - in different regions, different names. Some of these words are truly Slavic-Croatian but some come from the Romanic or Germanic influences.

Fortunately, I experienced a lot of carnival times in my life & now I'm finished with all that so this is not attractive to me any more.

The youngers doing "zvončarsko kolo"
kolo = round, wheel, circle

Bell-Carriers

The bell-carriers are the only thing that still attract me to the carnival cause they are the real keepers of traditions & they are really doing something & not just those low-vibes physical pleasures.

Some legends say that the beginning of bell ringers started in the time of Turkish invasion to Balkans but some sources claim the times of Mongolians. That is why some of bell-carriers ware very ugly & terrifying masks cause in the old times the Turks or Mongolians would get really scared believing that those are demons & they would just run away from the battle without even fighting.

Other legends say that the bell-carriers with the sounds of bells chase away the evil spirits of winter & with colorful uniform inviting the spring to come with the live & vibrant colors of the new life cycle. This theory I prefer more.

I went many times with different bell-carriers groups on their traditional walkabouts around the remote villages through the forest & the residents of these villages know exactly the times when their coming so they prepare traditional food & drinks exclusively for them.

Often I saw some of the nicest gestures they bring with them. In many of these villages only old people live, sometimes so old that they are not able to take good care about themselves, but they still prepare the food & drinks for the special occasion! The bell-carriers often ask if those people need any help. If they do, then they quickly & easily do that job for them. One of the nicest moments I once witness in a small village - there was a very old lady, probably 80 years old & she was so happy to see all those young, big, strong & handsome men coming to visit her & she danced with few of them in front of her house. That was sooo sweet!!!

Some of bell-carriers also do some nasty things - especially if a fellow left the group & doesn't want to participate in the activities anymore. In this case when they pass his house they always do some small mess around the house so he has some work to do later on... hahaha...

In Croatian the bell-carrier we call "zvončar" but often this word is translated as bell-ringer but I just cannot agree with that translation!

Grown-ups doing "zvončarsko kolo"

Bell-Carrier Procession In Matulji

Municipality of Matulji has the most bell-carriers residents so they are organizing the procession of only bell-carriers groups for the last 26 years. I went there this year to shoot. Directly after India & all Indian chaos & noise, I went straight into the another one.

Bregi is a small village which is part of Matulji Municipality & in the previous photos you could see the bell-carriers of Bregi or in Croatian - "Brežanski zvončari". Below you can see some more shot of this group:

In the next few days I will be publishing photos from other bell-carrier groups cause all of them have a different uniform which is really interesting to see.

In this article, which I published 5 years ago, I explained in details the Croatian Carnival traditions & my personal engagement in it: https://steemit.com/culturevulture/@careassaktart/carnival-festival-in-croatia

In the next few video which I've recorded, edited & published, you can see few traditional bell-carriers activities during the carnival time:

Bell-Carriers from Zvoneće coming to Mučići

Bell-Carriers from Viškovo coming to Bane

Bell-Carriers from & in Žejane opening the carnival time

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