CARNIVAL -way of living

Not everyone

loves costumes. My family and I enjoy and design new masks every year.

The Rijeka Carnival is held each year before Lent (between late January and early March) in Rijeka , Croatia . Established in 1982, it has become the biggest carnival in Croatia and 3rd in the World.

Every year there are numerous events preceding the carnival itself. First the mayor of Rijeka hands the symbolic key of the city over to Meštar Toni, who is “the maestro” of the carnival, and he in turn figuratively becomes the mayor

of the city during the carnival season. The same day, a carnival queen is elected. As all the cities around Rijeka have their own events during the carnival time, the Queen and Meštar Toni would be in attendance at most of t

hem.

Also, every year the Carnival charity ball is held in the Governor’s palace in Rijeka. It is attended by politicians, people from sport and media life, as well as a number of ambassadors.

The weekend before the main event there are two other events held. One is Rallye Paris - Bakar. (after the Dakar rallye ). The start is a part of Rijeka called Paris after the restaurant located there, and the end is in city of Bakar, located about 20 km south east. All the participants of the rallye are masked, and the cars are mostly decorated oldtimers. The other event is the children’s carnival, held, like the main one, on Rijeka`s main walkway Korzo. The groups that participate are mostly from kindergartens and elementary schools, including groups from other parts of Croatia and neighboring countries.

The main carnival march is held on the last Sunday before the Ash Wednesday . It usu

ally starts at noon. In the front there are the real mayor of Rijeka, the carnival Queen and Meštar Toni. The route of the march has several stages where the hosts present every group, and the main stage is situated in front of the city hall. The mayor, the queen and Meštar Toni stand in front of this stage and they greet all the groups coming afterward. Spectators usually gather to see the march all along its route. If the weather is good, up to 100,000 spectators may attend the carnival. Traditionally, the last group are Halubajski zvončari (“bellmen” is the characteristic folk custom and it was added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanityin 2009), and when they pass the march is over. Depending on the number of participants, this usually happens between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Of course, the march does not mark the end of the carnival. On the same evening, there is an event called the burning of the Pust. Pust is a puppet, that has some satiric name, very often after some politician, and he is blamed for all the bad things that happened in the preceding year. This event is held in Rijeka harbor, and before he is taken to the

sea, a reading of charges is held, where a spokesman reads all of his sins. Afterwards, a boat takes the Pust to the sea and it is burned there. This tradition is held in all places around Rijeka, but it is held on Tuesday or Wednesday after the carnival.

Add it to your bucket list! :earth_africa:

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Hi @VavaN-i ,

Thanks for sharing your photos with costumes specially desiged for the carnival in Rijeka! I’ve been listening a lot about this colorful and fun event in your city. There are many people coming from different countries to attend it every year. Rijeka is a great city and I really enjoyed spending a couple of days there. If you have more photos from the city, please don’t hesitate to share them with us!

As a quick reminder, please make sure you’re sharing only your own content on Connect, as otherwise this violates the Local Guides program rules. For tips on creating your own great posts on Connect, please see How do I write a post on Connect? and How do I follow the original content guidelines?

You’re welcome also to edit your post and replace that text that is not yours and rewrite it with own words. That would be really appreciated.

Thank you and have fun on Connect!