flowers from all over the world, among them the yellowy-gold Acacia dealba- ta, more commonly known as mimosa. The idea of a festival of mimosa as a carnival celebration that should attract tourists to Herceg Novi in the middle of winter and revitalise the city was born during a polar night in Norway in the winter of 1967. The then mayor of Her- ceg Novi, Petar Stijepčić, was on a visit with a group of Belgrade journalists, dis- cussing how much warmer and nicer the weather was at that time in Herceg Novi and how to attract tourists during win- ter. Then one of the journalists, Dragu- tin Backo Gregorić, mentioned the won- derful“orange plantation”in Sutorina, as well as some beautiful yellow flowers in the yard of famous painter Luka Tomano- vić. With the choice between orange and mimosa, it was mimosa that won, and already the following year the first test carnival was held, with the first official one taking place in 1969. And so February became the month of masks, fests and feasts of fish and wine, accompanied by the harvesting of mimo- sas (in the municipality the number of
mimosa trees in individual seasons was greater than 30,000) and various cultur- al and sporting events. This joyful carnival was also toured by the former Yugoslavia and the region, and flocking to this town of majorettes and troubadours in winter were Ger- mans, Norwegians, Austrians and the Dutch ... as well as tourists from all over Yugoslavia. One of the dearest guests of the Mi- mosa Festival in the city in which, as he then said, he had practically lived for 10 years, was actor Dragan Gaga Niko- lić, who in the year 2000 played the de- fender of the carnival, Bajate Mrcine, “by profession a Vampire of our bad past”. Every Mimosa Festival culminates in the burning of the carnival rousers. Their names (Vlastoljub Dangubić, Životije Bi- jedić etc.) and the sins attributed to them are always a convenient way for the lo- cals to jest at the expense of the author- ities who spread false promises, and to laugh at themselves for enduring it all. The trial itself, a proper theatre play, with a prosecutor, defender and judge, repre- sents a mixture of the deeply ingrained
coastal talent for “Scherzo” and an eter- nal stance of anti-globalisation and de- fiance of the great powers. The death penalty is not only permit- ted at this carnival celebration, but is also desirable, albeit with due respect to gen- der equality – both male and female car- nival rousers have been burned with un- divided joy over the years. Ten years ago Fat Farsa Materić was burned, guilty of “causing the people to skip meals, stretch salaries, raise loans” and in the year of the Great Economic Crisis, 2008, Recesija Krizić, the illegitimate daughter of moth- er Inflacija and father Wall Street, was convicted and burned. “Burn the Carnival rouser and turn him into smoke, and together with him everything else that was bad”– is how the judgement of the carnival usually reads. With this, one cycle in the life of the city is closed and a new page is opened; a page filled with the beautiful and the ug- ly, which will always culminate with the culprit receiving the punishment they de- serve and the locals feeling brief, fleet- ing relief… Because that’s life. Until the next festival.
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