World Cravat Day marked today

World Cravat Day celebrated on 18 October (Photo: Academia Cravatica)

One of the many Croatian inventions has its official day today on 18 October with the marking of World Cravat Day.

The forerunner to the modern necktie was the Croatian invention the ‘Cravat’.

The tie was first used as an item of clothing by Croatian soldiers back in the 17th century with the oldest Croatian portrait of a person wearing a cravat painted in Dubrovnik in 1622 depicting the great Croatian poet Ivan Gundulic with a scarf tied around his neck like a cravat.

The oldest Croatian portrait of a person wearing a cravat – poet Ivan Gundulic

The word cravat derives from the French cravate, a twisted French pronunciation of Croate. The Cravat is a Croatian symbol known and recognised worldwide and the 18th of October was declared World Cravat Day by Academia Cravatica back in 2008.

18 October is World Cravat Day (Photo: Dhar Media )

The second ever Croatian and European festival dedicated to the necktie has been going in the capital Zagreb and culminates on the 21st of October.

Cravat Regiment

The festival opened on Saturday with ties being placed on 50 monuments around the city of Zagreb, including on statues of King Tomislav and Ban Josip Jelačić.

Cravat being tied on Ban Josip Jelačić (Photo: Dhar Media)

“The cravat is a universal symbol of elegance and the culture of dressing, but its powerful symbolic potential contains many other values. The vertical cravat symbolizes the human vertical – human dignity and self-awareness, moments of solemnity and ceremony, success and a business spirit… With its lightness on the one hand and the knot on the other, the cravat “binds” together freedom and responsibility. It encourages us to be more aware of our communication of our dignity and the dignity of others – our freedom, but also our responsibility. Due to its enormous symbolic power, the cravat is of great significance for Croatia and the world,” Marijan Bušić from Academia Cravatica said. 

(Photo: Academia Cravatica)