Great carnivals in the folklore of Croats

Abstract

The origin of the folk-theatre dates back to pre-Christian times. Archaeological excavations testify to the existence of masked rituals even in the ancient-Illyric times. Folk-theatre in Croatia is the most varied and the richest at carnival time. The highlight of carnival season is the Great carnival which includes Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. In this work there is a large number of examples of carnival folk-theatre, which have not yet been mentioned in literature, and which have nowadays been originally recorded in the Republic of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Montenegro. Thus, their interpretation is an interdisciplinary one. In many examples we can observe Indo-European cultural influences, as well as European and global ones. There is a significant numberof indigenous Croatian carnival rituals, and some of them were created after the Croatian War of Independence. The purpose of carnival folk-theatre is apotropaic. Carnival time is also associated with other various folk beliefs.