Traditional Croatian Carnival Masks From Frlanija

Frlanija is a specific micro location between 2 municipalities - Matulji & Kastav - on the hills. It's mostly small family houses, a rich area with long family roots. Čakavski is the dialect spoken there too. Frlanski zvončati or the Bell-carriers from Frlanija are pretty new group which was gathered just 20 years ago so they don't have long history tradition except the enthusiasm & will to maintain the carnival tradition of the area but also to enrich & create new tradition. One other specific of theirs is that the go on their walkabout through the villages & towns around their area on Saturday when no other group is going.

Here are some photos of theirs:

Like almost every bell-carriers groups, Frlanski zvončari are also led by the ladies & children

This is a young boy, a bell-carrier too - the future of this group

This member was for me extra special cause he had the biggest "mačuga" or the symbolic weapon he held in his hand. Later on I asked if it's made of a gourd & I was right.

One of the main "moves" in the bell-carrier ringing dances is clash with bells & buts against each other, bounce off, continue to shake the belts with bells.

The bamboo stick carrier was running around the bell-carriers while were in "kolo" & he got in front my camera exactly when pressed the shutter but still I like the shot!

This year, I think this group was celebrating their 20th anniversary of existence so they had the honor to close the gathering parade in Matulji. Of course, they needed to do something special or any kind of a trick or "bad" thing so they lit the torch & than I got the chance to make some extra photos with special smoke effects while they were doing *zvončarsko kolo".

When kolo ended the smoke was still around so I got some more nice shots!

When kolo is finished, the bell-carriers rest & the captain gives them wine or brandy to keep them warmed up & full of energy.

Some people of course know the bell-carriers & they are very happy to greet them

Another specific about the uniform of these bell-carriers are asparagus in their hats among the flowers - that is also a symbol of upcoming spring & asparagus season. Anyway, the main duty & purpose of these guys is to chase away the winter & invite the spring & awake the new life cycle...

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

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