The Legend of the Roosters

                                                    The Legend of the Roosters

 “Once upon a time, when the Turkish armies were attacking the city of Durdjevac, the Turkish military leader came across a strong resistance” is one of the most famous lines in Croatian mythology, as everyone has heard the famous tale of the Croatian stand. This is not too surprising as the tale encapsulates the way Croatians like to think of themselves.

The story tells a tale of a small city in Croatia, called Durdjevac. Turkish attacks are a part of our history and this particular one is one of the favourites as it shows how we use our wit. Since the Turkish armies could not reach the people of Durdjevac, who were hiding in the fortress, they decided to camp around the city and wait until there would be no food left in the fortress. Indeed, as the time passed by the food vanished. By the end, the only thing left was a small rooster. Since the rooster was rather tiny, it was impossible to feed the army of Durdjevac with it. In the moments of desperation, an older woman came up with an idea. She suggested that they should put the rooster in to the cannon and shoot it into the Turkish camp. As they had no better plan, the captain decided to listen to the old woman. Once the Turkish soldiers saw the rooster, they thought there was plenty of food left in the fortress, as Croatians could afford to be throwing it away. The Turkish military leader, Ulama-Beg, gave up and left the battle. He got so angry that he put a curse on the people of Durdjevac, calling them roosters. “And you there, feathered heroes that fight battles with roosters, shall always carry the name roosters! Your children shall call you roosters, and your grandchildren will stay roosters!”

The Legend of the Roosters is one of the most interesting ones in our history. Every June, the people of Durdjevac celebrate this story with an open theatre. Each year the performance gets bigger and better. It is performed on the authentic location from which the legend comes and it includes hundreds of extras, amateurs, knights and professional actors. The whole scene is set to show the tale in the most truthful way possible.

I feel like this story tells a lot about Croatians. Maybe, not even the story itself, but the way we preserved it and kept it as our intangible treasure. As there is no real proof that this has ever happened, I find it amusing how proud of it my little nation is. Croatians are very patriotic and in many cases consider themselves better than others. I think this legend is a perfect example of it, since it presents Croatians as a wise and a witty nation. Not only does it shows how smart we are, but we also have to be better than someone else. I feel like this might be a complex of a small country. Indeed, we are a tiny nation which we are aware of, so we have to show that even though tiny, we can outwit anyone.