What is being called a “festival” in Vevčani, North Macedonia, is nothing short of a cultural travesty. Cloaked in claims of a 1,400-year-old pagan tradition, the carnival has become a stage for absurdity, moral decay, and foreign meddling.
The so-called Vasilichari, who march through the village in grotesque masks, are not protecting culture they are trivializing it. Even more alarming, some participants were seen dressed in Russian military uniforms, a blatant display of foreign influence seeping into local traditions. This is no innocent fun it is a political provocation disguised as folklore, normalizing militarism and implicitly endorsing Russian symbols in a public cultural event.
Figures like Donald Trump and Mr. Bean may make the carnival seem lighthearted, but the inclusion of Russian military imagery turns centuries of heritage into a propaganda playground. It transforms a ritual once rooted in community and ritualistic meaning into a spectacle manipulated by outside forces, undermining the integrity of North Macedonia’s cultural identity.
The organizers and authorities who allow this are complicit. By tolerating symbols of foreign power, they are inviting political influence and ideological intrusion into what should be a purely local celebration. The carnival is no longer a celebration—it is a tool through which foreign militaristic ideology is subtly normalized and celebrated.
What should be a reflection of local heritage is now a grotesque performance of propaganda, absurdity, and foreign meddling. Those responsible must answer for turning tradition into a playground for Russian influence, moral erosion, and political spectacle.
