Forgiveness ("Pokladi")

"Pokladi" is the last winter holiday that is being celebrated in Vevcani. This holiday may be celebrated between 14^th of February and 20^th of March, depends of the calendar. The most important symbol of this holiday is forgiveness. The whole day is spent in giving and seeking forgiveness, and usually the younger ones seek forgiveness from the older ones. For weeks and days young boys and girls gather juniper from the woods. They make huts from wood and as a roof on the top they put straw, bundles with stalks and the juniper. The huts are made from several men and there are groups divided in neighborhoods. Every neighborhood has its own hut. But the hut there is a small camp fire where the people from the neighborhood gather to eat and drink and keep safe the hut in "fear" that someone will come and burn it before midnight, that is when usually the huts are lit. There is a kind of a contest between the neighborhoods on which one has the tallest hut. There are being made smaller huts fro the children "kertacka" and while burning the children sing a song. It is clearly from this celebration that back in the old days people where manifesting the waiting for the sun activities.