Poklade

Poklade is Croatia’s carnival period, running from after Epiphany until the day before Ash Wednesday, with its liveliest public events on the last weekend and on Shrove Tuesday. In everyday speech you also hear maškare, a word for masked carnival customs and the people in costume. The best-known celebration is the Rijeka Carnival on the Kvarner coast, where large groups from Croatia and abroad fill the streets with satirical floats, brass bands, confetti and elaborate masks. Families line the route for the International Carnival Parade, and children have their own parade earlier in the season. Throughout poklade, bakeries and cafés sell krafne, the jam-filled doughnuts many Croatians strongly associate with these days.

A distinctly local sound comes from the zvončari, bell-ringers from villages around Rijeka, Kastav and the wider Kvarner area. Dressed in group-specific costume details such as sheepskins, striped shirts, white trousers, decorated hats or masks, they wear heavy bells around the waist and move in processions that make the bells thunder together. Their rounds traditionally go from village to village, and the noise is linked with driving away winter and calling in spring. In many places the final day also brings the burning or symbolic punishment of a carnival figure called Pust, jokingly blamed for the year’s problems. People say "Sretne poklade!" and ask each other which mask they like best.

The pack has 36 words spread across these domains.