Traditional Croatian Carnival Masks From Ćićarija

Again, due to the springtime in Croatia & my numerous activities in forest & garden, I haven't been able to post here on my blog but now I decided to come back here & to continue where I left off...

...I know it's been long time since the end of this year's carnival time in Croatia but still I have made some excellent photos of traditional Croatian carnival masks & activities & I believe they still deserve to be published here & shared with the community & the world!

The specialty of these bell-carriers are the horns in which they really blow & produce the specific sound! I feel sorry I didn't record the sounds of these horns!

Ćićarija

Ćićarija is a mountain range laying beyond mountain Učka, to the North, just above my hometown Opatija, from Northern Istria towards Southern Slovenia. The highest peak is 1272 m high. There are only small villages on the mountain & less than 400 residents living in the Croatian part of Ćićarija. There are more residents living in the Slovenian part. Due to the small number of inhabitants, the nature of the mountain is very well preserved, as well as the cultural traditions.

Ćićski zgončari are the bell-carrier group from the mountain Ćićarija made of the people from all the villages situated on the mountain.

These bell-carriers are also followed by the children & women dressed in traditional clothes.

Even thou tattoos are not really Croatian tradition, I like how the tradition is changed & evolving with the modern times & globalization so we can see here a member of a traditional bell-carrier group with a big tattoo on his hand.

The best moment of shooting people is to catch their truly natural face expression.

The full uniform

After doing "zvončarsko kolo", these guys are blowing in the horns.

All the upper shots I made with Nikon D800 & Sigma 105 mm 1:2.8 DG Macro HSM lens & for the self-portrait below I used the same camera but different lens - Nikon AF Nikkor 35-70 mm.

In the next few days I will be publishing photos from other bell-carrier groups cause all of them have a different uniform which is really interesting to see.

• 1st post: @careassaktart/traditional-croatian-carnival-masks-bell-carriers-from-bregi
• 2nd post: @careassaktart/traditional-croatian-carnival-masks-from-vukojevci-and-sovinjak
• 3rd post: @careassaktart/traditional-croatian-carnival-masks-from-frlanija
• 4th post: @careassaktart/this-is-my-entry-for-the-monomad-challenge-looks-like-something-is-wrong

In this article, which I published 5 years ago, I explained in details the Croatian Carnival traditions & my personal engagement in it: @careassaktart/carnival-festival-in-croatia

In the next few video which I've recorded, edited & published, you can see few traditional bell-carriers activities during the carnival time:

Bell-Carriers from Zvoneće coming to Mučići