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Poklad Carnival Event on the remote Adriatic Island of Lastovo is unique
in the world. On Poklad's (Shrove) Tuesday, the Poklad puppet is sliding
down the 300 meters long rope (three times), with simultaneous petards'
detonations going on under his boots (this is only part of the final
exhausting ceremony which will last until the morning of the following
day).
The ancient traditional story says that Poklad Carnival Event is celebrated
as a memory of an old historical event old more then 500 years. Catalan
pirates attacked the nearby island of Korčula and sent a messenger to
the island of Lastovo, with a request to surrender. Instead, Lastovo
people took weapons, while their women and children went as pilgrims
to Saint George church praying for help. And sure enough, the help came
as a storm which destroyed the Catalan fleet on its way to Lastovo.
After that, the Lastovo people took the messenger and put him on the
donkey through the village to laugh at him, and then he was let down
the rope and finally burnt.
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