The little-known ancient festival to chase away winter

Pust is one of the most important festivals in Slovenia and it usually takes place before Easter. It's a really really special tradition for many Slovenians and it's always been about different masks, different kind of characters. I was trying to document these almost forgotten rituals and carnivals in kind of remote towns of Slovenia, rediscovering my own backyard you know and it's just wonderful to be there to document it and photograph it. Festival Pust takes place in almost every town and village and it's really a fantastic festival and the idea is that we are trying to look forward to spring, trying to chase away the winter, the coldness, the harshness of this dark season which is a little bit bizarre in the last years because the winters have been so mild and warm and very little snow in the valleys but still Pust is one of the oldest rituals in Slovenia and it goes far back before the early Christianity and it was always kind of disapproved by church leaders you know in the 14th, 13th century and also later in the socialist regime but somehow in the countryside the carnival kept its original identity. They were kind of brought back by locals and that kind of knowledge was passed down from generation to generation. In most of the countryside carnivals there are these kind of two different groups. There are the ugly ones, they have a certain role of chasing away winter, of killing the Pust and then there are also the beautiful ones. Their role is to bring this spirit of spring. They visit the homes of the neighbors, they bring different gifts, blessings to their homes giving them hope for the next season that the weather will be great, that the snow will melt. There are many differences among these little carnivals. One of my favorites is probably Ravensk Pust. It's very old school and the idea is that you know young unmarried boys they are kind of chasing away winter. They are dressed up with devilish looking costumes, they fill up their socks with ashes and they chase young boys. It's kind of a rite of passage for young boys to become men. So for most festivals it ends with a bonfire of burning Pust and they gather on the last evening of the festival season. They just take the strudel to the town and they throw it to the bonfire. It brings Pust and winter, also you could say childhood of those boys to an end and with the coming of spring the ash-covered boys are transformed into men. For some villagers Pust is more important than any other life event. So it's just a beautiful thing to see that you know this incredibly preserved millennia-old ceremony still keeps on.