300 Moustache and Braids
5:38 pm
Being from Sinj
and not writing about Alka, particularly about the 300th Alka, would
just be unpardonable. Still, I am going to keep the story of Alka as short as
possible, because there is something else related to the number of 300 that I
actually want to write about.
For those who do not know anything about
Alka: it’s an annual knights' tournament commemorating a victory of only 700
inhabitants of Sinj over more than 60.000 Ottoman soldiers. The siege of the
city took place in 1715, which means that this year we’re proudly celebrating
its 300th anniversary. Roughly, the tournament consists of 11-17
horsemen (Alkars), wearing traditional
garnments, and attempting to aim the center of a hanging metal ring (alka) with their spears, at full gallop. The ring consists of 4 parts of different values, and the contestant who earns most points after three rounds, wins the tournament. In
2010, the Alka of Sinj was inscribed in the UNESCO Intengible Cultural Heritage
List. You can read more about the rules, participants, history, children's version of the tournament, etc. here.
Still, what amazed me most related to this year's great celebration are the following two stories about the people of Sinj:
In an attempt to further revive the memory of what the town of Sinj and its inhabitants used to look like in the past, someone came up with the idea of the men of Sinj growing moustache, the trademark of historical Alkars. The idea met with an enormous success, and many local men have actually been growing moustache for months now. The climax of these attempts was the gathering of 300 mustachioed man at the town’s main square for the purpose of taking a photo together, lined up in a way that their bodies form an image of a moustache, the Alka ring, and the number 300 (below).
In an attempt to further revive the memory of what the town of Sinj and its inhabitants used to look like in the past, someone came up with the idea of the men of Sinj growing moustache, the trademark of historical Alkars. The idea met with an enormous success, and many local men have actually been growing moustache for months now. The climax of these attempts was the gathering of 300 mustachioed man at the town’s main square for the purpose of taking a photo together, lined up in a way that their bodies form an image of a moustache, the Alka ring, and the number 300 (below).
As a response to
this initiative, the women of Sinj came up with the idea of wearing braids during
the days of Alka, just like their grandmothers and great grandmothers used to. Some diligent hairdressers even put up a stand at the main
square and spent days braiding the hair of all the interested women, free of charge. And really, in my estimation, every 1 in 3 women was wearing braids
during the last several days. Even I have managed to pull one off despite my short hair :) Moreover, we have just started an initiative for taking a photo similar to
the one the men took, and hopefully we will find a volunteer photographer, the firemen to lift him up, and enough women with braids to participate in this action. I will
surely add our photo to this post later on if we manage to carry out our idea!
Words can't express how proud I am of my fellow citizens right now!
Words can't express how proud I am of my fellow citizens right now!
Ever seen anything alike? All the men and
women in a town doing something completely out of the ordinary to celebrate an important event in the history of their hometown? Do let me know!
Thanks for stopping by and have a nice day!
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