If you ever hear that there is talk of the fifth season in Kastavština, you did not hear wrong – it is carnival time.

At the beginning of every year, there is talk about traditions and folk customs that have been passed down from generation to generation for longer than the oldest Kastav residents can remember.

There is talk about the Halubaj bell-ringers, whose uniqueness was recognized and protected by UNESCO by including them in 2010. to its list of intangible cultural heritage.

The story of the bell ringers is a story about victory against evil forces, about driving away the gloomy winter days and invoking fertility and spring, and the symbolic liberation of all participants from bad experiences accumulated during the past year.

Carnival is also called Pust, after the straw dolls that personify the worst misfortunes and sins of the entire community and which are burned on Pust.

And on the „pusni pundejak“, the entire Kastav region rumbles with the bells of the Halubaj bell ringers, who in the center of Kastav provide visitors with an unforgettable scene of the formation of a characteristic circle that officially ends the fifth season.