Calendar customs and festivities originated in ancient times. They have been passed down to this day as elements of religion, but their meaning and content have remained the same. Customs of all ancient cultures and civilizations reflected the connection between humans and the cosmos, the process of world creation, and the embodiment of the divine in space and time. By participating in rituals, humans drew closer to the sources, beginnings, and causes of all created things. In this way, the world was constantly rebuilt and time was renewed, allowing for the harmony and unity of cosmic, earthly, and human rhythms.
Cycle of the year
The year is a model of cosmic time, a micro-cycle that repeats the pattern of larger cosmic cycles. The year is a ring that unites the eternal and the transient. The flow of earthly time, its uniformity and monotony, is interrupted by periods of festive religious time, allowing humans to renew their memory of the spiritual origin of the world and themselves.
Return to Chaos
In order for there to be a The birth of something new requires the death of the old, that which has run its course. The end of the year and the aging of the world are accompanied by festivities that symbolize a return to the original state, to a time when everything existed only as a possibility and everything was possible.
In Rome, at the “end of time,” the Saturnalia festival took place, traces of which can still be seen today in masquerades or carnivals. Carnival represents a time of jokes, merriment, lavish feasts, masquerades, a time of chaos when rules and order do not apply. Carnival is a period of earthly comedy that precedes cosmic drama and renewal.
During carnival, the secular world gathers strength, reigns completely, culminates. It can be assumed that songs, dances, jokes, feasts, and masked walks were originally of a ritual nature and that their purpose was to rapidly experience everything that couldn’t be expressed during the rest of the year.
In many countries, carnival time was also a time for condemning all the sins of society. In the final days There was a trial of the Carnival (Fašnik), a large straw-filled doll with a head made of a pumpkin or a clay pot, which the “public prosecutor” accused of all the possible sins committed by specific people or residents of that area in the past year. Through satire and irony, both the “prosecutor” and “defender” publicly presented everything that contributed to the aging of time and the disruption of order.
Parades of masks played a special role in the humorous public admission of sins, which have been widespread since the last century. The masks were warmly welcomed as they were believed to bring prosperity. They were given gifts, a little money, but most often wine and food.
The photograph is from the Archive of the Viškovo Tourist Board, author Boris Sušanj.
Purification
Immediately after the carnival, a period of purification began, a return to the sacred. This is a path of inner solitude and self-denial, thanks to which the renewal of the world becomes possible.
In the consecutive sequence of carnival – purification, it is possible to discover the opposite, the transcendence. In the midst of enduring and eternal, matter and spirit. By participating in the carnival, man becomes fully earthly, a comedian and a jester, in order to spiritually renew themselves through the ritual of self-purification.
While March marked the beginning of the year, the beginning of life, February, the last month of the year, was the end of time. For the Romans, it was a time of redemption. The name of this month, February, derives from dies februatus – “day of purification”. During February, purification and renewal took place not only on an individual level but also on a collective level. The Lupercalia had a cleansing character, which later replaced the Candlemas holiday.
Lupercalia was celebrated in mid-February on the Palatine, in the wolf’s cave that symbolized the depths of the earth. The earth gives birth to life, and it rests within it until the time it is strong enough to come into the light of day and begin its existence.
The cleansing, which preceded the beginning of spring, had to be complete. In order to purify the soul, the house, the city, and the fields, a The annual burning of garbage, ritual washing, consecration of fields and houses, “rejuvenation” with flowers, renewal of bread and water in homes, as well as ceremonies invoking the earth’s assistance to “carry away” and bring a bountiful harvest. The logical conclusion of this process – for there always remains something hidden even to the most careful eye – was achieved by many peoples through the custom of burning all expressed and unexpressed sins, illnesses, and misfortunes that the sorcerer transferred onto a straw doll, the embodiment of the past year. In ancient Rome, this was Anna Perenna and later carnival, Shrovetide, or Mardi Gras. Like Janus, she symbolizes the turning point, the abyss and the bridge over the abyss that only the pure and renewed can cross because in the new world everything must be in accordance with the primal, sinless time.
During the last month of the year, the community, cleansed of all the sins accumulated throughout the year, resurrects and becomes capable of renewing its connection with the creative forces of nature. As a result, the link is reestablished. Primeval order.