Leisure
Masquerade
Fun or Faith?
05.02.2010
Since ancient times, mankind has had the urge to wear a mask. “Masking” is one of humanity’s oldest practices and its origins are tightly connected to our relationship to the metaphysical world.
First, there was ritual masking, which meant reaching beyond the conscious world into the unknown and achieving complete identification between the bearer of the mask and supernatural beings the mask itself represented, i.e. demons, spirits of the ancestors, the dead etc.
After belief in this mythological world of ritual faded, people superstitiously kept the tradition of masking, both to celebrate the power of nature yet also to subdue nature to their wishes and goals. It was important to take part in nature’s regular revival. When winter turned into spring and the world blossomed, people greeted that change hoping to encourage natural forces to their own benefit. However, to be able to approach the spirits of natural growth and fertility, they had to be masked.
Masking is, therefore, a very pagan tradition. It was, of course, always part of a faith that a world exists above the one we walk on and (by that) actually a part of religion, but nevertheless a religion that Christianity wanted no part of. Over hundreds of years, they tried to exterminate the ancient tradition but to no avail. Priests saw the mask as some kind of devil’s tool to steal a man’s soul, but they also saw it as an inconvenience that enabled wild behaviour that was not as easily controlled as a quiet, subdued person who usually attended church services. At last, they had to confess defeat and accept it as a part of human being, too old and too primal to be exiled.
Slovenian Traditional Carnivals
Pust (Shrovetide) is a descendant of festivities in ancient Rome, which were held to celebrate both the New Year (February was the 12th month of their calendar) and nature’s spring awakening. This jubilation was preserved through time until today. The Renaissance reformed that tradition as “Carnival,” a new perception of life glorifying material world instead of spiritual one, which fit perfectly into a masked celebration of nature’s rebirth. If we are particular, we can say that Pust and Carnival actually mark one and the same thing, since etymologically they both mean the same: to leave or put away meat. This explains their placement a few days before the annual 40-day long fast. Pust’s days were originally Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, Saturday was added later.
Slovenia has preserved at least 150 traditional masks, although not all of them are characteristic for Pust. The most famous among them is Kurent, whose origins have several interpretations. The most common one is that he used to represent a god of boisterous joy, a Slavic version of Greek god Dionysus. Kurentovanje (which means Kurent’s carnival) is the biggest carnival in Slovenia, although its meaning has changed from bowing to nature’s magical forces to a commercial folklore event. Even though Kurent is now merely a mascot, the people in the Štajerska region still deeply respect the tradition. Young boys transform themselves into Kurents; they put on sheep fur coats and a leather belts or a chains holding cowbells. On their heads, they wear an ugly hairy cap with a snout instead of a nose and a long red tongue. They have horns on top of their heads and sticks with hedgehog’s skin in their hands. They go around in groups jumping and bouncing up and down; it is said that in the past different groups of Kurents used to fight so hard there were casualties (forbidden nowadays).
In addition to his festival of Kurentovanje, there are many other smaller carnivals in different regions of Slovenia. Cerkljanski lavfarji (Cerkno’s runners) are another very old tradition together with their wooden masks. The central figure is Pust, who is a manifestation of winter and therefore has to be killed. His clothes are made of moss and he carries a spruce in his hands. Around him are a number of other masks, the most popular being ta bršljanast (the ivy one), ta tirjest, ta star (the old one), ta kožuhast (the fur one) etc. On pustni torek (Mardi gras, as they call it in New Orleans), they hold a trial for Pust in front of the church and afterwards they execute him.
Also famous are the škoromati from Brkini, the Fašanek from the Porabje and Prekmurje regions, Ravenski pustovi and others. There is a nice tradition in Prekmurje that demands that if nobody got married in the village the previous year, they would have to hold a borovo gostüvanje (pine’s feast). The oldest unmarried man in the village must marry a pine tree and they have an entire wedding with parents and wedding guests (a girl that stands in as the pine).
The Death of the Mask
There are many more of those masks and different traditional events but they all end in a similar fashion. Pust is put on trial and found guilty, or they look for him and find him hiding under the table in one of local bars. Then he must meet his end; in some places, he is shot, while elsewhere he is burnt or thrown in the river or simply buried. With Pust’s burial, the feasts are officially over and fasting begins.
With Pust, we can see that the masking tradition is still very much alive. People participate in festivals, eat, drink and dance until they are too tired to do so. Unfortunately, as many things change and lose value, this has also happened to this fine tradition. Celebrations of nature’s cycle of renewing have evolved into folklore events and serious and fearsome masks into ridiculous mascots without substance. Today’s festivities have little in common with what the masquerade was originally about. Perhaps that is why the ones that enjoy it most now are children.