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The purpose of Cravat Day
The installation “A Cravat around the Arena”, performed on 18th October 2003 in Pula, created by Marijan Bušić, was as a world scale spectacle, seen on world television by more than a billion people. It was assessed as “the most ambitious, most well-thought out concept and project to promote the Croatian identity” (Ive Šimat Banov). Through this installation, with the largest cravat in the world, the ancient and the contemporary eras were linked symbolically, and the red color of the cravat sent a message to the world of love and life together for all peoples and nations. At this year’s book fair in Leipzig, where Croatia was a partner country, on the title page of the program book of Croatian authors there was a picture of precisely the Cravat around the Arena.
“The cravat is communication, a universal symbol of dignity and dress culture, and its symbolic potential also holds other values. The vertical cravat symbolizes the human vertical – human dignity and self-awareness, a moment of ceremony and celebration, success and the business spirit… By its fluttering lightness, however, on the one hand, and the knot on the other, the cravat “binds together” freedom and responsibility. It encourages us to communicate more aware of our own dignity and the dignity of others, our freedom, but also our responsibility. Due to its huge symbolic power, the cravat has epochal importance for Croatia and the world” Marijan Bušić pointed out, as the initiator of the project, Croatia – the Homeland of the Cravat.
