“Đakovački vezovi is truly the embroidery of the people,” the author Matko Peić wrote: “A man from the Đakovo region, as other men in Croatia rarely do, lives among his own people ethically and organically, like a wool thread that exists aesthetically and organically in embroidery. One needs to visit during the year to see them plough, sow and reap, sing at weddings and walk behind the deceased at funerals. Always as close as the threads of a kilim! The folk costume displays its real beauty, needless to say its true purpose, when it leaves the mannequin at the museum and adorns the farmer in the countryside. Only when the traditional rubina garments adorn a beautiful woman’s thighs can the true meaning of the expression “properly pleated garments (skitita rubina)” be comprehended. You have to see the vital chest, hips and backs adorned by wheat spikes, peacock feathers and oak leaves! When you watch the procession in folk costumes, you feel as though the meadows have marched into town, as if there is a procession of forests in Đakovo. And as though those are not young men and women, but budding shrubs of wild roses and young plum trees in bloom...“
From history
The Đakovački vezovi Festival (Đakovo Embroidery Festival) is an essential symbol of Đakovo. Although it has been held annually since 1967, it seems as though it has been held in Đakovo for centuries. The first Đakovački vezovi Festival was held on 2 and 3 July 1967, under the leadership of Dr Zvonimir Benčević, as a specific tourist-cultural festival on the occasion of the International Tourist Year, under the title Svečane igre Slavonije i Baranje Đakovački vezovi (Folk Games of Slavonia and Baranja and Đakovo Embroidery). It was such a hugely successful event that it was turned into a tradition.
Vezovi today
Several thousand participants from all parts of Croatia and abroad gather each year, and visitors have the opportunity to revel in the beauty of folk customs, regional costumes, song and dance, handicrafts and gastronomic specialities. The most attractive events of the Festival include the ceremonial procession of all participants, the opening and closing programme, equestrian competitions, the cavalcade of wedding carriages and horse riders, gastronomic and music programmes. This Festival was established and it has survived on very strong foundations of care for folk heritage in Đakovo, which is one of the most significant centres of Croatian folklore. Preserving folk heritage has always been one of the cultural imperatives of Đakovo, which was evident during the time of Bishop Strossmayer in the activities of the following collectors of folk treasures: Josip Lovretić, Milko Cepelić, Matija Pavić, Ferdo Filipović, Ilija Okrugić, Nikola Tordinac, etc. Even Strossmayer himself possessed “numerous artefacts of folk craftsmanship, specimens of regional costumes and various folk weavings and embroideries”.
Cultural heritage in Chatedral
The positive attitude toward tradition can be observed in the Đakovo Cathedral, where the fresco Adoration of the Magi and Shepherds (by L. Seitz, 1878) depicts a Croat in traditional costume, a Slavonian woman in the vezenka regional costume of the village Budrovci, and peasants and shepherds dressed in regional costumes. The floor of the Cathedral was made in such a fashion as to mimic the works of folk craftsmanship, and elements of folk handicrafts can be observed on the Cathedral’s front side.
Recognition at the global level
Two features of the Festival are part of the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Ljelje are a symbol of the Festival, and Slavonian bećarac songs echo harmoniously through the alleys in Đakovo during Đakovački vezovi. The colour gold is another symbol of the Festival, because it is held during the harvest of wheat – Slavonian gold, and due to the goldwork, the symbol of Đakovo and the Đakovo region, adorning the most beautiful folk costumes in the world!