Kurent or korant?

Every year around this time, whenever I am in Slovenia, I visit the festive Shrovetide celebration or “pust as we call it, in Markovci with upmost joy. In these parts, they call it “fašenk” and not the typical Slovene word “pust”, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is the same celebration with everything that goes along: a loooot of alcohol, a loooot of music and just happy, cheerful holiday celebrations. But in these parts of Slovenia, this seasonal celebration has an even deeper meaning, because it is the birthplace of our most famous “pust” masks – the “kurent”.

 

 

I guess that every true blooded “kurent” will be a bit offended, if a guy like me, from Ljubljana, called them “a mask”. And I bet that other people would be offended too, because the “kurent” are and have always been something special. They are to be taken serious; they look frightening and have a set goal for every year – to bring with them the beginning of spring and chase away winter! But seriously, these kurenti don’t do their jobs as they used to anymore, and quite frankly, they bother with non-otherworldly problems too, such as jumping up and down the city and ringing their bells on the places, which are known for their pure Slovene phrases like “kdor ne skače ni Slovenc” (aka a famous Slovene saying or song “Those who don’t jump are not Slovenes.”), and visiting the Slovene chambers of upper-class parliament, where they again don’t really chase away winter as they should, but drive away colossal nebulous, which are spoken to the Slovene nation on a daily basis. I guess this is a much harder task to do than actually chasing away winter, which, not like the idiotic politicians, goes away on its own… But the kurenti are still stuck in time, because in this “fašenk” I was asking myself the whole day what actually chases away what? It was a sunny day, no clouds in sight and so warm, that the kurenti in their thick fur costumes started to boil from the inside and not even cool refreshments, of which there were plenty of, did their job. Maybe even the opposite? At the end of the carnival I really started to think what is chasing away what; are the kurenti chasing away winter, or global warming the kurenti? I am afraid, the true answer is known to us all!

 

 

If we look into the history of the Slovenian “kurentovanje”, which supposedly started its very roots in the far-long passed bronze era, we can see that the true kurent-figure as such was depicted 100 years ago in the year 1891 in the encyclopedia “Die Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild” and was very, very different from the ones we can see today, since they have drastically changed in appearance over the last decades. The typical long fur, the kurent trademark so to speak, is not in use for many years really, and the shorthaired head-part of the kurent, from 1930, changed a lot. Also the number of bells around his waist multiplied, and other changes can be seen as well. Maybe the most significant change, which jumps right into your eyes is, that today there are also women amongst the kurent, called “kurentinje” and also children – maybe those should be called “kurentki”? Probably the puritan kurent-forefathers are turning in their graves when seeing this, rotating faster than a lamb rack on a grill, from where the kurent-fur comes from. From the Balkans! Well, that’s just how it is…

 

 

And to end all of this, a question, on which many souls part ways on how they view it. Mainly linguists; because how is it spelled in Slovene correctly: kurent or korant? The best answer I heard so far is from one of my friends, with whom I visited fašenk with. It is a bit special, but in the very spirit of the current carnival spirit: “They are very different! Kurenti grow kure (chicken) and koranti read the koran!” of course, this idea came later in the evening, as we celebrate with quite many glasses of wine and local fresh-made “krofi” and baked bread with minced lard. Well, the wine was in larger quantities than the food, I must admit, and not just he, but we all look it a bit overboard that day, so his answer, to me, sounded very logical and on point at that time…

 

 

Let it be as it is, because ever-changing traditions ensure that our kurenti will still be, weather past or future – one of the many symbols of our Slovene identity, which we can all be justifiably proud of! If you, however, want to know more about kurenti (or koranti), look them up in the latest edition of the magazine National Geographic, where they are introduced even further.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Arne Hodalič