To bring spring, hundreds of hirsute revelers roam the country’s villages.

If spring is nigh, and hordes of people are roaming around in sheep costumes making lots of noise, it’s a safe bet you’ve found yourself at Kurentovanje in Ptuj, in northeastern Slovenia. This annual rite of spring carnival begins 11 days before Ash Wednesday—and if you’re in the area, you’ll know.

The core of the carnival consists of groups of Kurenti—folks wearing gigantic sheepskin costumes—going door to door at local homes, forming circles around the residents, and jumping around, shaking sticks adorned with hedgehog skins. The point is to make enough noise to chase away the remnants of winter and other associated evil spirits.

“In fact, it is a special feeling of power and some kind of supernatural energy,” says one participant in a UNESCO video about the festival. “When you put your cap on you somehow go through a certain transformation from the ordinary man to a true Korant [Korent], a supernatural being.” It is a transformation one may make many times in one’s life: Many begin participating with the Kurenti as young children, only to subsequently bring their own children and grandchildren into the fold.

Though Kurentovanje is now a multigenerational phenomenon, and was inscribed in 2017 to UNESCO’s list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, it is in fact a fairly recent arrival in Ptuj. Though the festival draws on the Kurenti—old folkloric figures—the first organized iteration took place only in 1960. Local historian Drago Hasl was eager to find a way to preserve folk traditions, which found themselves under threat from modernization. He succeeded: Just ask any of the Ptuj residents who answer their doors and are surrounded by spring-bearing sheep.

Since the late 1970s, California has had a thriving regional punk rock movement. It primarily consists of (but is not limited to) bands from the Los Angeles, Alameda County, Orange County, Ventura County, San Francisco, and San Diego areas.

Pre-1976

Los Angeles had a very strong experimental rock scene in the early 1970s. Many figures from this earlier scene would play notable roles in the later punk scene. The experimental LA rock scene was centered around a club called the Rodney’s English Disco, run by Rodney Bingenheimer, who later, as a disc jockey for KROQ’s “Rodney on the Rock”, did much to promote LA punk bands.

In the mid-1970s, a wave of protopunk glam bands emerged from Los Angeles, including Shady Lady, Zolar X, Berlin Brats, Imperial Dogs, and most notably The Runaways.

1976–1980

Starting in 1976, following recent releases of recordings by punk bands such as the Ramones, The Sex Pistols, and The Damned, a number of punk bands formed in the Los Angeles area. Among these bands in L.A. were The Weirdos, The Germs, The Plugz, The Controllers, The Skulls, The Dils, Black Randy and the Metrosquad, Catholic Discipline, The Go-Go’s, The Screamers, The Dickies, X, The Zeros, The Alley Cats, Hal Negro and the Satintones which featured Masque nightclub owner Brendan Mullen who co-authored three books in the 2000s about the punk era in Los Angeles, and The Bags.

Many bands also formed in the San Francisco Bay Area; The Avengers, The Nuns, Mutants, Flipper, Negative Trend, The Offs, and the Dead Kennedys. California punk of this period was musically very eclectic, and the punk scene of the time included a number of bands whose sound strongly crossed over to Art/experimental Punk, new wave, synthpunk, Rockabilly, and hard rock.

In 1978 in Southern California, the first hardcore punk bands arose, including The Middle Class, Black Flag, Vicious Circle, and the Circle Jerks (in late 1978). Hardcore bands and fans tended to be younger than the art punks of the older LA scene and came mainly from the suburban parts of the Los Angeles area, especially the South Bay and Orange County and San Diego. This resulted in a rivalry between the older artsy “Hollywood” scene and the hardcore “suburban”, “surf punk”, or “beach punk” scene. Those in the “Hollywood” scene often disliked what they saw as the musical narrowness of hardcore and the violence associated with “suburban” punks (the South Bay and Orange County punk scenes had a particular reputation for violence), while the “suburban” punks looked down on what they perceived as the lack of intensity of older “Hollywood” bands (The Germs being a notable exception with lead singer Darby Crash) and the fashion consciousness of “Hollywood” punks. The Penelope Spheeris documentary The Decline of Western Civilization, shot in early 1979 and early 1980, documents the period when the older LA punk scene was being completely taken over by hardcore and features performances by bands from both scenes.  Decline was filmed in part at punk shows sponsored and promoted by David Ferguson, who in 1979, formed CD Presents, a recording label that would record and promote a number of pioneering groups from the California punk scene. Ferguson and CD Presents organized New Wave 1980, the first festival gathering and showcasing punk bands from all over the West Coast.

By 1979, hardcore had displaced the Hollywood scene and become the dominant expression called hardcore punk in both Northern and Southern California. By this time, many of the older punk bands had broken up or become relatively inactive. A few, such as The Go-Go’s, The Dickies, and X, went on to mainstream success (in some cases, X, almost abandoning punk entirely), while a few others, such as The Dickies, embraced hardcore completely.

Ded Moroz is a legendary figure similar to Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas and Santa Claus who has his roots in Slavic paganism mythology. The tradition of Ded Moroz is mostly spread in East Slavic countries and is an important part of Russian culture. Although at the beginning of the Soviet era communists banned Ded Moroz he soon became an important part of the Soviet culture. The literal translation is “Grandfather Frost”.

Ded Moroz is depicted as bringing presents to well-mannered children, often delivering them in person in December days and secretly under the Christmas tree on night at 31 December on New Year’s Eve.

In East Slavic cultures, Ded Moroz is accompanied by Snegurochka his granddaughter and helper, who wears long silver-blue robes and a furry cap or a snowflake-like crown. She is a unique attribute of Ded Moroz, since similar characters in other cultures do not have a female companion. Often Snegurochka is called Nastenka (Nastya), the diminutive of Anastasia.