Masked Slovenians chase away the winter at country's largest carnival

The town of Ptuj hosted a traditional masked gathering last Sunday. 

Thousands of participants and tens of thousands of visitors come here every year to celebrate the end of winter with some rather unusual carnival masks. 

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has put the carnival in Ptuj on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. 

Those are two of the reasons why months ahead, the entire city of Ptuj is living for this event. The locals calls it 'kurentovanje'. So, when eventually that day comes, everything is only about the kurentovanje. Even the country's president Nataša Pirc Musar visited the event.

"It is of great importance, not just for the city of Ptuj, but also for Slovenia, because this event is UNESCO heritage," Pirc Musar told CGTN. 

"It means that a lot of people from abroad are coming to Slovenia. I am really happy that Slovenia can show the beauty of my country and also the cultural heritage."

Scary costumes

In total, there were 3,248 participants in 84 groups from six countries that paraded at the carnival. It took over three hours for the entire parade to go through the city center. The part that was perhaps most interesting was the traditional costumes from the Ptuj region called the kurents.

These guys wearing those masked costumes look terrifying because their job is to scare away the winter. It is hard not to be scared from just looking at them! 

The traditional kurent costume is made out of sheep's wool. It is heavy, it's hot underneath and wearing it requires significant strength. As the carnival's prince Marko Šamperl explained, it is a worthy tradition.

"This is our traditional mask," Marko said. "This is our pride. Our traditional mask. He is the symbol of Kurentovanje. There are other traditional masks, but the Kurent is above all masks."

The spectacle of various colors is a traditional way of announcing the arrival of spring and the revival of nature after the long, grey and gloomy winter months. 

On this Sunday, though, nature was lenient on this carnival, as the sun made it even more colorful.