Showing posts with label neckwear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label neckwear. Show all posts

June 25 - Independence Day in Croatia

   Posted on June 25, 2022     


This is an update of my post published on June 25, 2011:




A lot changed in Croatia in the year 1991. On May 19, there was a referendum about whether or not to break away from Yugoslavia. (About 94% of the population voted Yes, let's break away!). On May 30, the president announced the referendum results and declared Croatia independent. On June 25, the Croatian parliament formally joined it with its own declaration of independence. And on October 8, parliament cut all remaining ties with Yugoslavia.


When Yugoslavia broke apart, Slovenia, Croatia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia,
Montenegro, and North Macedonia formed. 

Kosovo is only partially recognized. 

To commemorate this series of events, May 30 is Croatia's National Day, called (I gather) Statehood Day.

Some websites claim that, separately from the May holiday, either June 25 or October 8 (or possibly both?) is considered Independence Day. Whether or not these days are celebrated is hard to verify!

More about Croatia...

Croatia is the home of the cravat, or necktie.


This piece of clothing used to be part of the Croatian soldier's uniform, and it was seen and copied all over Europe in the early 1600s. The French king Louis XIV loved the cravat and adopted the fashion, and it became so popular it was commonplace.


It's interesting to note that "cravat" came from the French word for "Croat," which means "a person from Croatia"! But the method of typing a cravat became so important - and so varied! - that the words "tie" and "necktie" began to be used more and more as time went on.
 

Nowadays men can dress up or individualize their work clothes with ties—sometimes even wearing ties that are funny!


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October 18 – International Necktie Day

Posted October 18, 2019

There's this semi-humorous assumption that it's hard to buy personal Father's Day gifts, so everyone just goes out and buys a necktie.




Of course, that's a huge exaggeration, in part because:

(1) Many, many kids are able to buy or make gifts for their dad that are not neckties.

(2) Not all men wear neckties.

(3) Some women wear neckties. Some women and girls HAVE to wear neckties as part of their uniforms.



 
All of that said, ties do make pretty good gifts in many cases. They're small enough to slip into even a full suitcase for airplane travel (the same cannot be said for a golf club or tool box!), and they are varied in cost and material, color and pattern - so it's pretty easy to give a personal gift that's a necktie.

I know a guy who wears a tie every day to teach high school science courses - and he has a cool collection of science-y ties! I bet his kid is always on the lookout for a science necktie he doesn't yet own!
Why is today International Necktie Day?

People in Croatia are proud to claim neckties as an invention of their ancestors. Nobody is sure when it was invented, but by the Thirty Years' War, in 1618, Croatian soldiers were wearing red neckwear with their uniforms. They were called cravats. Soon French and British soldiers borrowed the idea - with modifications, of course - and Louis XIV of France started wearing a lace cravate (cravat in French) as a child.

When royalty adopts a new fashion, many
others will follow. Here is Louis XIV in 1667 -
WAY older than a little kid!

Now, of course, the practice of wearing a cravat or necktie has spread all over the world. Proud Croats started celebrating National Cravat Day on October 18 - calling attention to their contribution to fashion in spectacular fashion by tying an enormous red necktie around an ancient Roman amphitheater. Of course, this 2.650-foot-long tie ended up being in the Guinness Book of World Records! (I mean, it took two years to prepare and five days to install! So, yeah, it better have won the world's record!) 


Just check out some of the bajillions of variations:


There are many different kinds of knots...
And different widths go in and out of fashion...
Also, there are some variations of styles, including bow ties, string ties,
puff ties, and so forth...





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