The article focuses on the carnival practices related to the carnival characters of korants and kurents and to the mythical or fairytale character of Kurent in the 1950s in Slovenia. It analyses the ...varied use of the term kurentovanje, which derives from the names of all the mentioned characters and which was still a heteronym in the years after the Second World War. As has already been established by Gačnik, up to 1960 kurentovanje could refer to the whole carnival culture of the rural area, but could also be used for various socially preferred urban carnival activities. Since the expressions korant, kurent, Kurent and all the other terms deriving from them were already widely used in diverse meanings at the time, we argue that a time of kurentomania can be seen as a way of nationalizing those carnival characters. After 1960, when the carnival festival of Kurentovanje appeared in Ptuj, the heteronym started to turn into a homonym. By calling the event by using a nationalized expression rather than by referring to local carnival characters, which Kurentovanje tried to revitalize, the carnival culture was appropriated and further homogenized – at least in its name Kurentovanje as a homonym also tried to surpass all other and different practices related to kurents and Kurent.
Korant ima na glavi strašno kosmato kapo, ki zakriva ves obraz. Naličje je narejeno iz strojenega usnja, v katerega so vrezane odprtine za oči, nos in usta. V ustih ima zobe iz belega fižola, pod ...nosom pa pritrjena dva šopa brk. Iz ust mu visi dolg, rdeč jezik. Na glavi ima dva goveja rogova ali pa dve tanki palici okrašeni s šopi perja in papirnatimi trakovi. V roki nosi gorjačo – ježevko.
Korant ima kožuh prepasan z verigo, na kateri visi vrsta velikih kravjih zvoncev. Na verigo ali na ježevko si korant pripenja lepo vezene robce, ki mu jih podarjajo vaška dekleta. S tem mu dekleta ...izkažejo svojo naklonjenost. Več robcev kot korant prejme, bolj cenjen je.
Vlečenje ploha naj bi bila prvotno del plodnostne magije – ploh naj bi predstavljal moški spolni organ ali falus. Možno je, da je bilo vlečenje ploha način izganjanja mrtve in neplodne zime in ...klicanje rodovitne pomladi. Neplodno zimo predstavlja slamnata lutka, rodovitno pomlad pa drevo – ploh, ki ga vlečejo fantje iz gozda v vas.
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