Amazing Slovenian Box - Questions for Dutch students 

Amazing Slovenian Box - Dutch answears

Čipka

Čipka was used to earn money in times that people didn’t get much money for there work such as mining and farming. The lace works have only one begin and one end everything is connected to one another.

They also learned some techniques and improved there skills at home. In almost whole Slovenia they can learn to lace.

The people often lace a round shape such as the ones displayed below. But actually they lace all kinds of shapes. They are often used in house for furniture or decoration

Belokranjska Pisanica:    Easter Eggs from Bela Krajina

How do they paint ‘pisanica’?

The pattern is often applied to an egg by the process of wax-resist, is the same of batik. A stylus is used to apply hot wax to the shell of an egg, which is placed in a series of dye baths. The colour and pattern become visible, when the wax become remove.

The most typical colour for eggs was red, because the loads of red beets and other vegetables.

Colors are black, red and white or natural (color of eggs)

 "In the Međimurje (Medimurje is not in Slovenia) area, soot would often be mixed with oak to make a dark brown colour. Green plants would be used for green painted."

Karst fenomen

The Karst is the land between the Trieste Bay and the Vipavska Valley and at the same time it is also the name for all the amazing shapes created by waters in the fusible stone. Picturesque karst phenomena can be found in almost half of the area of Slovenia. Besides more than eight thousand known karst caves and potholes, there are also karst springs and intermittent springs, disappearing lakes, swallets and swallow holes, original karst poljes and apparently dry sinkholes.
A special value of Slovenia are also the alpine Karst phenomena in the Alps. At Kaninski podi there are potholes considered the deepest in the world and you can view karren, grooves and other surface Karst formations. Another peculiarity of the Slovenian Karst is also the Snežna jama Cave under Raduha which reveals mighty underground halls with ice drip-stones and lakes at the 1556 meters above sea level.

The area of Karst and in the region usually called Notranjska there are the most famous caves in Slovenia: the Postojna Cave which is the most visited cave in Europe, the Škocjan Caves, listed in the world natural heritage at Unesco, the Križna jama Cave with its underground lakes, the oldest tourist cave Vilenica near Lokev and all the caves connected with the Postojna Cave – the Pivka Cave, the Črna jama Cave, the Planinska jama Cave, the Otoška jama Cave, the Cave under Predjama Castle and others. The disappearing Cerknica Lake is of karst nature and when it is full of water it is also the largest of Slovenia’s natural lakes. The unusual Divje jezero Lake near Idrija shares the Karst nature; its waters come from an underground gallery of unique depth. The mysterious lives of karst rivers can be seen in the Rakov Škocjan Regional Park. There is a natural teaching trail in that karst valley with natural stony bridges above the river. The Karst Snežnik Plateau is also famous for numerous karst phenomena. Lipica, the cradle of famous white Lipizzaner horses, medieval Štanjel with its castle and Fabiani park and many other cultural, ethnological and culinary specialities attract visitors to the region of Karst.
 
In the Dolenjska and Bela Krajina regions you can discover the mysteries of karst underground as well. The picturesque Krka River has its karst source in the Krška jama Cave, there are the Želnjske jame Caves near Kočevje which are not deep under the surface and the Ledena jama Cave on Stojna with its ice lake during the whole year. The largest of the karst caves of the Dolenjska Region is the easily accessible Kostanjevica Cave. Besides numerous caves and potholes there are large karst poljes, swallow holes and springs which create the image of the landscape. The beauties of the shallow Karst are presented in the Lahinja Regional Park.

What is the most often shape of that sort of pastry?

We surfed the internet and found many pictures of this pastry. We find that the most often shape is the heart.

Potica

What is the most common filling of Potica?

The most common filling is made of walnuts.The other ingredients are butter cream and vanilla.

"Palm Sunday"

"The American Slovenian  ????????????????  Catholic Union celebrates Mass with a corporate communion followed by an ethnic breakfast. An added colour to Palm Sunday is the importing of "butarice" palms from Ljubljana, Slovenia that are available at a nominal fee.  These colourful butarice decorate the sanctuary on Palm Sunday along with the descriptive velvet panels that depict the gospels of each week during Lent."

Panjska Končnica

The beehive front is a painted plank on a beehive. It is a form of folk art,  which is typical for Slovenia and has developed in the Gorenjska and  Koroška region in   the middle of the 18th century and it later spread  throughout the entire area of Slovenia, where it had been appearing until  the end of the first world war. The motives are different, from religious, which have, as it is told, protected the bees, to secular, such as historical,  rural, humorous etc. the beehive fronts present a true ethnographical  treasury  of Slovenia.

Today the beehive fronts have a symbolic meaning and the reproductions  of  the most famous motives are a popular present and a typical Slovene tourist souvenir.

Beekeepers who ordered illustrated front boards for their beehives were quite familiar with Biblical story of the creation of the world and the garden of Eden.

Job on a pale of manure

Biblical Job was one of the most frequently depicted patrons. In Slovenia, Job was the protector of beekeepers.

St. Florian

St. Florian is one of the most frequently depicted saints on the front boards. His protection is sought against temporal and eternal fire.

Kozolec

Purpose of the chair:

This is the most difficult assignment. You told us it was not to sit on. We even mailed to the writer of a long article on "kozolec", but didn’t get an answer. We think that it is used as a kind of platform to stand on to put the hay on top.