This year marked my second birthday abroad! Last year I spent my birthday at my best
friend’s brother’s wedding in India, and this year I spent it in a much more
closed space. However, the celebration
was still fantastic.
On Sunday I decided to leave Prilep and travel to Ohrid
again. Many volunteers would be in the
area to attend a carnival in Vevcani.
The town is located the mountainside just over the border from Albania
and is a quick bus ride from the city Struga, which is located on Lake Ohrid as
well (ehh, just Google Map it). Not
sure whether I would be well enough to attend the event or if I could request
time off from work, eventually I decided to attend the event late and was
offered lodging at Dan’s again in Ohrid.
When we arrived in Ohrid, the other PCVs asked me if I
wanted to do something special for my birthday.
I answered that I would rather stay inside, save money, and take it easy
so that we could celebrate the carnival with more zeal. We succeeded in accomplishing ALMOST all of
these goals :=). We started the birthday
celebrations early, and after a quick game of “Cheers Governor” we were in the
perfect state to dance off some of the booze.
There is nothing more I can ask for on my birthday than for my friends
to celebrate with me and for them to allow me to be an autocrat with the music
(I was able to control the turn table with an iron fist).
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| Birthday Celebrations |
We passed out by midnight, and thus we were ready to head to
carnival as early as we wanted to. The
crew in Struga decided to leave for the carnival at 11AM, but we stalled a bit
to enjoy a late breakfast. After
catching a taxi from the pazar in Ohrid, we arrived in Vevchani just in time
for the parade. We followed the parade
along the main road to the town square, and throughout the walk we were
surrounded by people in costumes. The
people wearing costumes took this Halloween-like tradition to an impressively
creative level. Not only were people
wearing masks, makeup, and costumes, but each group in the parade had a
theme. Some dressed in drag, others
looked like demons, others dressed like injured pensioners in cross-country
skiing gear, others wore large snowmen costumes. The link below provides pictures of the
carnival from this year and years before.
Before I continue, many may wonder what the point of this
carnival is. Supposedly the carnival is
over 1400 years old, and thus it has many Pagan traditions. Some say the carnival started due to a
marriage that went awry. The
best-looking man in the village was arranged to marry with the best-looking
woman, but during a trip abroad for work he fell on his face and disfigured
it. In order for his fiancé to become
used to his ugliness, he asked his friends to wear masks so that his wife could
become familiar to his face less painfully.
There is another story regarding the origin of the festival
that seems to lead to its more “extreme” nature. As the Orthodox New Year approaches (January
14), people are welcomed to ask for forgiveness for their transgressions. Thus, people wear hideous masks and wreak
havoc through the town just before the New Year. When the New Year arrives, the people then
burn the mask and start the year anew.
With this mindset, people in Vevchani let go of all of their
inhibitions, and the town experiences public indecency that far surpasses the
South Side Irish Parade (South Siders from Chicago know what I mean). Alcohol is encouraged, so most of the people
at this carnival are drunk. Since people
can act their worst, they do things that beg forgiveness on the following
day. For example, dead chickens and pig
skins are carried by some, and these people slap bystanders with the
carrion. Sometimes animal blood and
feces are tossed at people. Some
participants dress in offensive costumes- Nazi costumes and KKK costumes are
some of the most popular. I have heard
(but cannot confirm) that sometimes Islamic symbols and a casket with the Greek
flag are burned in effigy. (For more
information regarding the carnival, see below).
Given all of this mayhem, PCVs are told that they should not
attend the carnival if they are easily offended. In my opinion (and of course, not that of the
Peace Corps or any other organization), many of these people do not understand why
dressing like a member of the KKK or a Nazi is offensive, but understand that
it is, which is a part of the idea behind the festival. Therefore, I personally do not take offense
to some of these people dressing in offensive costumes because they understand
that the costumes are evil and will burn the costumes on the last day.
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| The Vevcani Parade |
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| Dressed as pensioners affected by a skiing accident. |
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| Some participants flailing dead chickens and pig skins |
By the time the parade was over, we were able to meet with
the other group of volunteers who had traveled from Struga. Joining them were PCVs from Albania who had
traveled to Macedonia for the carnival.
It was great to meet another group of PCVs in Macedonia, especially when
their whole day involved day drinking.
Many of the volunteers adopted the spirit of the carnival and did away
with their inhibitions. For example, one
volunteer from Albania decided to borrow the skis from a participant in the
parade and ski down the concrete hill (there was no ice or snow that day). I was in complete shock when I went to give a
goodbye hug to one of the volunteers from Albania, but instead of accepting the
hug she slapped me hard on the face, turned me around, and insisted that I
joined her and the group in their departure.
Just in case if you are thinking “oh boy, sounds like a bunch of drunk
Americans making a scene at a foreign festival,” please remember that the
locals were acting in a similar fashion.
For example, my jaw dropped when I saw a Macedonian in costume pick up a
table from a café, lift it over his head, and throw it into the middle of the
square.
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| An unfortunate victim of the carnival |
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| One of the volunteers from Albania doing the oro. |
We eventually left Vevcani after nightfall and traveled to
Struga to enjoy dinner and bar hop across the city. It was a great night to party, as many of the
participants from the festival were in Struga to celebrate. Thus many of the patrons at the bars were
fully decked in costumes. The Macedonian
and Albanian PCVs were even lucky enough to dance the oro with a bunch of
minions from “Despicable Me”! By 4AM,
all of the volunteers were tired of listening and dancing to traditional
Macedonian music and turbo folk, and thus we decided to head home and end the
celebrations.
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