Who Is Kurent — and Who Isn’t? The Fascinating Story of Slovenia’s Most Famous Creatures (Exclusive Interview)

They are known worldwide and have helped put Slovenia on the global map. But where did this tradition come from, what is its purpose and are Kurents truly to be feared? Find out all this and more in an interview with Aleš Ivančič, Chairman of the Association of Kurent Societies.

The door-to-door rounds of Kurenti, which are inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, start on Candlemas, 2 February, and end on Ash Wednesday. Once, they visited houses in the nearby villages in the Ptuj and Drava fields, the Haloze Hills and the Slovenske Gorice Hills, but now they end their rounds in Ptuj at the traditional Kurentovanje.

Who is a real Kurent and what does he do?

A real Kurent is someone to whom the mission of the Kurent has been handed down through folk tradition in the Drava and Ptuj fields, in Haloze and on the slopes of the Slovenske gorice mountains. Being a Kurent is something that is laid down in your cradle, it is about the transmission of heritage and values ​​from father to son.

With the Kurent festival in the 1980s, there was an increase in dressing up as a Kurent, which in a way degenerated the tradition and today almost anyone can be a Kurent. We sometimes meet groups of Kurents from Postojna, Novo mesto and other regions in Slovenia who do not understand the mission of the Kurent. They have taken it as a carnival mask, which the Kurent is not at all, but is part of our intangible cultural heritage. Unfortunately, the Association of Kurent Societies has no influence here and we do not know how to curb this.

“In the 1980s, there was an increase in dressing up as a Kurent, perhaps it became more accessible to people at that time, but I do not even know the real reason for this large number.” The Chairman of the Association of Kurent Societies, Aleš Ivančič

How old is the Kurent? Is there any information about when it originated?

A more detailed description of the Kurent can be found in the chronicle of the pastor and chronicler in the church of St. Mark in Markovci, Matej Slekovec. The record was made around 1896, and the Kurent is described as a very interesting “spaka” (freak), which “looks as if it had escaped from hell and become fraternal with Lucifer himself”.

Markovci, which was then still a village under the Ptuj region, but today is an independent municipality, is perceived as the home of the kurent and the kurent.

However, the history of the Kurent is much longer, some folk tales from Haloze from the 18th century mentioned it, and the villagers sometimes prayed to the Virgin Mary for the Kurent, which indicates that they were associated with it much earlier. It is also mentioned in Slovenian literature, and writer Ivan Cankar later wrote about them.

But did the Kurent always appear at the same time?

The Kurent could only be seen during the period from Candlemas, i.e. from February 2 to Ash Wednesday, the date of which changes. In the past, it was not a mass occurrence, but this came about with the emergence of organized “kurenting”, which in a way also made the Kurent more beautiful.

In the past, Kurent looked much more grotesque and scary, and on homesteads they used whatever they could find to put on him. But you couldn’t see Kurent so easily back then. Until the end of World War II, they weren’t even going around the city, they were only present in the countryside. The gendarmes even persecuted them in those days. The Church authorities had many concerns about them, as villagers prayed to them.

How many Kurents are there officially in Slovenia?

The Association of Kurent Societies already has 25 groups or societies, totaling between 1,100 and 1,200 kurents (in 2024). The vast majority of kurent societies are affiliated with our association, but there are certainly a few more, so it is estimated that there are between 1,700 and 2,000 in total.

The Association of Kurent Societies is also the bearer of the inscription of Kurent processions on the UNESCO list of representative intangible culture of humanity, which occurred at the end of 2017.

It used to be that a Kurent could only be an unmarried village boy, is this still the case?

According to oral tradition, Kurents were unmarried men, and we do not want to change this tradition. But Kurent has somehow adapted to modern times, as already mentioned, it is more beautiful today than it used to be. It also happens that a girl feels that she can be the bearer of the Kurent’s outfit and we don’t prevent it, I don’t even know if we are called to it. We live in an equal world and coexistence and this happens, which is why some societies allow this possibility.

Most importantly, the bearer of the Kurent heritage is not someone who buys Kurent equipment, it is a heritage that is passed down from generation to generation.

Some of our members put on the entire Kurent outfit even when they are 80 years old or older. That is when the Kurent spirit comes to life, connecting us, I call it “brothers by the bells”. When we put on Kurent gear, all divisions are overcome, we are all one, regardless of whether you come from the left or right bank of the Drava.

Kurent’s mission is supposed to be to drive away winter and evil, do they also want to scare us with their scary appearance, to drive out bad things from us?

The thesis that Kurent is supposed to be the drive away of winter is already somewhat distorted, we also encounter such statements in school textbooks. I believe that we do not chase away winter with Kurent, but rather thank her for allowing the earth to rest.

We call for a new season – spring, when everything will bloom and the fields will bear fruit again.

Kurent ensures health for livestock on homesteads, and for farmers, that they will have a large harvest and that all the household members will remain healthy. We do not want to chase anyone away, we bring happiness and joy. But happiness and joy cannot be shared if you do not suffer in the process. Kurent, by wearing its heavy clothes, as our mission dictates, we suffer in order to do good for others.

We are the ones who awaken, we begin a new life cycle. When a Kurent visits a house in a village, the locals are extremely proud of his visit. Their eyes water, because it is an incredible honor that they have received.

Has the inclusion of the Kurent processions on the UNESCO World Heritage List had any impact on the increase in foreign visitors to the Ptuj Carnival?

Although Kurent may have evolved over the years into a carnival and the central national carnival event, we are not carnivalists, and Kurent has never been and never will be a carnival mask. For us, it is exclusively an ethnological heritage, which in such a small geographical area is intertwined with various ethnographic characters – there are nine of them, some even talk about twelve ethnographic characters originating from this area. With Kurent at the head, none of them has any connection with carnivals.

Kurentovanje – its ten-day event, opens with one of the most beautiful ethnographic processions, which displays the ethnographic heritage of this environment, and guests from Croatia, Bulgaria and Hungary also present their ethnographic heritage.

Photo of Aleš Ivančič inside The Kurent House museum in Ptuj.

With the opening of the Kurent House in the center of Ptuj, your dream of finally connecting the ancient Slovenian city with the character of Kurent has come true. What do you want to achieve with this house?

Visitors who came to Ptuj outside of the Kurentovanja period could not fully experience the unique story of our spatial ethnography and heritage. The Kurent House was therefore purposefully created so that domestic and foreign visitors can learn about Kurent and other ethnographic characters from the area in an informative, popular and scientific way.

The Kurent House is a high-tech museum that can accommodate a maximum of 15 visitors at a time.

Interview by Marijana Podhraski for Metropolitan.si

Slovenian version: Kaj veste o kurentih? “Kurent nikoli ni bil in nikoli ne bo karnevalska maska” – Metropolitan.si