Osvrt na jednu kartu iz pokusne faze Etnološkog atlasa Jugoslavije
A Chart from the Experimental Phase of the Yugoslav Ethnological Atlas

Summary/Abstract: The chart was published as: The Chart no. VIII: Masked Processions - The Dates of Processions, Experimental Charts of the Yugoslav Ethnological Atlas, Yugoslav Ethnological Society, Center for the Preparation of the Atlas, Zagreb, 1963. The work on the chart was conducted by Prof. Branimir Bratanić. This is an analytical chart of the first degree, representing only masked processions, and excluding other circumstances in which masks appear. The data are not distributed evenly (being dense or sparse in some areas); nevertheless, further elaboration of the chart is possible. Here is described the second degree of the chart, i.e., the winter cycle of the processions: from the Christmas and the New Year period to the Mardi Gras period. Mardi Gras processions (marked as 1. on the chart) are found along the Adriatic coast, from the southeast to the northwest, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lika, Gorski Kotar, Alpine and Panonian regions (except Voivodina), as well as in western arid central Serbia. (The areas for which the distribution of the phenomenon is uncertain are marked by dashed lines.) There are isolated occurrences of the Mardi Gras procession outside of these regions - taking place at various dates of the Mardi Gras period - which are classified together and marked with a single sign or its variants. There are some recurrent, outstanding characters in the Carnival processions, including: bell-bearers and false wedding parties. Processions that appear in the Christmas period (marked as 2. on the chart) are to be found in western Bosnia, in parts of Lika and Voivodina, in northwestern Croatia and in some parts of southern Serbia: Only isolated occurrences are recorded elsewhere. This group of processions is also marked on the chart by a major sign as well as by its variants, to denote the variations in the date of the events. In western areas, the Christmas processions reveal analogies with other traditional Balkan events of this kind, such as „goat“, „cat“, „old woman and man“ characters, and participants dressed in fur and/or with charcoal on their faces. Processions in northern regions that are held on St. Nicola’s and St. Lucille's days are different, but they include masks - hence, they are also represented on this chart. The same is the case with „Bethlehem-carriers“ among whom sometimes appears a masked person.

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