CANDLEMEN ((PO)SVECARI/SVECORI, DUPLERI, THE SOULS OF THE DEAD, WANDERING CANDLES, NAVI, PATULJCI (DWARVES), SVECARCI, SVETLA, SVJETLOSTI LUTALICE (WANDERING LIGHTS))

It is a part of a person's self which he, provoked by the shadow, reflection, echo, vision, dream or halucination, imagines as a little flame, like a candle's. It is the soul, which after a person's death, comes out of the person's heart, separates from a rotting body and becomes independent. To let go of your soul means to die, to free yourself from the prison of the body. Although the soul becomes free, it keeps its feelings and so it can love and hate from a grave. The souls of the dead dance above waste land, usually a marsh in the late autumn or winter or in the early spring. They let out a blue light and last about fifteen seconds. The scientists explained this phenomenon as a smaller amount of a highly flammable self-combustible gas which exists in places where there are rotting things. They announce their presence by snapping, tapping or clicking. They can pass through the head of a needle. Some of them ploughed land that wasn't theirs. They are called the measurers (''merniki/merneki/mjeraci/krivomjeri'' or ''indjelijeri'') and are punished and during the Christmas midnight service have to measure and plough the land of those who have it too much. There are legends in Medjimurje of candlemen who lurk merchants (people who are transporting goods in carts from one place to the other) when they are returning home. The candlemen hope that they will get rid of their curse by entering their lamps. When they do that, the cart suddenly becomes heavy again, because of the heaviness of their sins , and frightens the animals that are pulling it. The animals then start running wildly or get completely exhausted. The merchant can chase them away by saying a curse or a prayer. What he will say, depends on whether the animal pulling the cart is a solar or a lunar animal and whether the saying of the Lord's name is punishment of the curse or a prayer which will chase evil forces away. Similar to candlemen are ''museki'' (children with dirty faces) and ''vazlini'', little flames carried by unknown children. You shouldn't turn after them or they will turn you into ice. Because of their underground origin they have been attributed mythological characteristics. They are similar to the faun from the ancient Roman tradition who was a teacher of farming and cattle breeding, a prophet and a god of the forests and fields. Because of it, the candlemen represent the human spiritual power, the power of thought. The soul of a man asleep and the soul of a man in a trance can leave the body through the mouth. The soul is connected to the body with an invisible chord and after it has wandered around the world it will return into the body after its owner awakes. A man asleep should never be awoken abruptly or the chord will break in which case the sleeper would lose its soul, i.e. his own shadow. If this happens, he becomes the shadow man.

The same happens to a man whose shadow falls on a newly built building. His shadow remains built into the building and the man goes mad. Sometimes the souls from Hell can be saved by the grace of the Almighty and land on a lowered lane, but only the souls which do not have any serious sins. It was believed in many old nations and civilizations that the Sun and Moon (i.e. the night Sun) were man's oldest ancestors, that they were imprisoned demons which represent the soul (this was the viewpoint of the Bogomils). The souls of all other ancestors were imagined inside the bodies of some plants and animals which will transfer them into the world of the dead. (The animals included the fish, snake, spider, butterfly, bee, bird - woodpecker, raven, coockoo, crow, heron; mouse, cat, wolf, dog, pig, stag, horse.) They were also imagined as breath, a burning form (like the flames or balls of fire), sparks, shadows (a man without a soul is a man without a shadow and a man without a shadow is a man without light), spirits of vegetation and fertility, supernatural beings, monsters, apparitions that do not attack but frighten people (e.g. the souls of people who committed suicide and damned people, apparitions wearing black apparel with their head in their hands and fiery sparks or crossed candles in the place where the head should be) and spells. The souls of the dead will become vampires, that is turn into an animal forever. There are other beings from Croatian folk legens similar to the candlemen, such as ''danja'', indiscernible beings which come out in the dark nights, ''dide'' or ''mrtve'' (the dead), apparitions wearing white gowns and making noise in the houses where they used to live, ''mrake'' and ''mracice'' (dark men and women) evil spirits of men and women who were not married, ''nemre'' (does not die) the dead whose bodies cannot rot in the grave, ''plasine'' or ''stravine'' (those that frighten) inexplicable things or events, ''posmetuhi'' impure spirits, ''pretke'' (ancestors) and ''svece'' (candles) spirits that follow their body during the funeral ceremony and go up to Heaven to join God before sunrise, ''slote'', extremely big, strong and ugly women apparitions which cause cattle to have cholera and plague, ''tenjce'', vampire shadow of a man that wasn't buried, etc. All of them can be recognized by children born one week after Easter. It is obvious that ancestors were not honoured only out of respect but also out of fear from them. A soul wanders around, visiting places that it knows until the body rots completely and that means about forty days after its death. This is also the period of the mourning of its relatives. During these forty days the soul is unhappy, desperate, and the not yet decomposed body in the grave is called ''the desperate one''.