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Carnival of Vevcani

MY CONTRY MACEDONIASECRET TREASURE OF MACEDONIA

 

         The Carnival of Vevcani, older than 1.400 years, is an interesting mix of paganism and modernism. It is held on 13 and 14 January (on the eve of and at the first day of the New Year, according to the old calendar). The main characteristics of the carnival are: archaism, secretiveness and improvisation. According to its specific features, it differs from all other carnivals in the world. The arena of the carnival events is the whole village of Vevcani, which turns in a boundaryless theatre of its kind during the carnival, where each house, each street is a scene onto which disguised people perform their plays like real actors.

         There are three traditional masks: bridegroom and bride, August the Stupid and musicians. Remaining masks are, in essence, major or minor carnival groups, who, through their costumes, gesticulations and movements usually ridicule and point to phenomena and persons of the social life.

         The role of August the Stupid is particularly distinct. Young people, full of energy bear this mask and communicate with the audience by peculiar movements and gesticulations, as well as by specific screams.

         During the carnival, the disguised participants enjoy all possible freedom and passion to “place the world upside down”, freedom in which the creativity of the spirit is expressed, as well as the sense for improvisation, criticism and sarcasm. Officially, women do not participate in the carnival. Yet, they do disguise, but, compared to men, do not take off the masks at the end.

         In 1993, the Carnival of Vevcani and Vevcani itself, became a member of the World Federation of Carnival Cities, in which Vevcani, despite of the great dissatisfaction extended by Greece, enrolled the Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name. Closely after that, Vevcani raised the initiative for the national carnival association, covering also Strumica, Prilep and other places endeavoring to revive the carnival tradition. The first President of the Macedonian Carnival Association was the Mayor of Vevcani Vasil Radinoski.

         The Carnival of Vevcani, through its representatives and carnival groups, has been presented in other places in the world as well, and foreign carnival groups are presented in Vevcani.

         The Carnival of Vevcani was the main inspiration for the seminar held in 1996, “on the spot”, under the title “Customs under masks”, in which local and foreign ethnological experts took part. They presented to the public the main features of the Carnival: traditional masks, the appearance of individuals from the social life, as well as elements composing the original contents of the custom. Of course, they made their observation of the innovations incorporated into the traditional custom. The Carnival of Vevcani, a theatre without walls of its kind, has never experienced postponing of the performance. From a year to another, it attracts the increased interest of the public, both in the country and in the world.

         In addition to the actors themselves, its affirmation also owes to numerous journalist teams, cameramen and photo-reporters. In the early ‘80s, Vevcani was visited by the French ethnologist and photo-reporter Jean-Mari Stenlen, who, in 1984, in the Paris Bobur, as well as in other cultural centres of Europe, presented the story about Vevcani in front of the cultural public. Through his story, he made the carnival happenings immortal, applying the sense of an artist. He recorded the masks and the events in a spontaneous manner and with a great skill, offering to the world a document on Vevcani’s distinctness, in which the models exist in a perfect simplicity of Vevcani’s environment. Several photos of original masks from the Carnival of Vevcani by this author were included in the great encyclopedia of European carnivals, published in Paris, in 1986.

         On the occasion of the carnival, people from Vevcani come home from all over the world, in order to take part in the unique performance, abundantly drowned in a red wine, which has enough room for every good-will guest possessing a carnival spirit.