Croatia: Facts & Stats

CULTURE

Traditions:

The cultures that influenced Croatian folk culture through the centuries are Hungarian, Austrian, Venetian, Balkan, ancient Croatian, ancient Mediterranean, and Turkish. Traditional Croatian folk culture is manifested in dances, songs, holiday traditions, folktales, and other forms.

The Croats are traditionally a warm, friendly, sociable people. They greet one another openly and, often, affectionately. Common greetings include saying good day, shaking hands, hugging, and kissing each other once on each cheek. Displays of affection such as holding hands and modest kissing are very acceptable in public. Croats pride themselves on their hospitality. Food and drink are immediately offered when one enters a Croatian home, and it is considered impolite to refuse.

Celebrations:

Croatia today has a number of official national holidays. Many of these are associated with Catholic holy days and traditions. These include Easter Monday (late March or early April), the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (August 15), All Saints' Day (November 1), Christmas Day (December 25), December 26, and Epiphany (January 6).

Other nonworking holidays are New Year's Day (January 1), International Labor Day (May 1), Statehood Day (May 30), Anti-Fascist Struggle Day (June 22), and Patriotic Gratitude Day (August 5).

Most of the notable holiday customs are associated with the church holidays. The day before the start of Lent (known as "fat Tuesday" to American Catholics) is celebrated by dressing in costumes and making special doughnuts.

Easter is celebrated by coloring and sharing eggs, preparing and blessing food baskets, and attending church services. On All Saints' Day, people visit cemeteries, light candles, and place chrysanthemums on the graves in remembrance of their deceased loved ones.

On the eve of St. Nicholas Day, December 6, children leave their shoes out for St. Nicholas to leave them gifts. The family gets together on Christmas Eve to decorate the Christmas tree and attend midnight Mass. Christmas day is celebrated with family by exchanging presents and holiday greetings.

Alcohol:

The Legal drinking age in Croatia is 18 years old.

Sports and Hobbies:

Soccer is Croatia's most popular sport. Despite the privileges that the other clubs had, Croatian clubs, especially Hajduk Split and Dinamo Zagreb were always on top having not just sports, but a certain political value, being a way of expressing Croatian nationality. In addition to many domestic titles, Dinamo Zagreb won the Fairs cup (now called UEFA cup) in 1967. Nowadays, Croatia has its own league with twelve teams, which are participating in the European cups.

Basketball is probably the one with most successes and talents for the country. The clubs dominated the championship in the former Yugoslavia, primarily Cibona Zagreb, but also Jugoplastika Split (now called just Split) and Zadar. Nevertheless, the teams were successful in the European club competitions.

Croatia had many good boxers in past, best of those were Mate Parlov, Marijan Benes, and Zeljko Mavrovic. Zeljko is still fighting, and he was undefeated for five years of his professional career. He was the European champion and defended that title for five times, and then lost the fight with Lennox Lewis for the world title in '98.

Croats were always successful in water sports, like swimming and water polo. The Croatian water polo league is probably the best in the world, and Mladost, just like Jadran won the European title in '90s. Also, Croatian national team won silver at the Olympics '96.

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