December 10, 2023 – What to do if you are from a village called Scrambled Eggs? Time for a festival of course.
The TCN inbox is a trove of useful (and not so useful…) tips and information. In this week’s batch, did I know that there was a Croatian village called Scrambled Eggs, with it very own Scrambled Eggs Festival? Only in Croatia…
No I didn’t, but the chaps at Klikni.hr did:
A few kilometers from Garesnica, but within the city itself, is the village of Kajgana. At the beginning of the millennium, about 300 inhabitants lived there, now there are even fewer. However, those who live there can boast that they live in a place with a somewhat unusual, “egg” name.
“Although it is called Kajgana, it is not named after scrambled eggs (kajgana means scrambled eggs in Croatian), an egg dish. I researched the area, because I myself come from Kajgana and I must admit that I have never heard from anyone where the name Kajgana came from. I even researched archeological research in that area, but I didn’t discover anything,” the librarian and secretary of the Matica Hrvatska branch in Garešnica, Margareta Miloš, explained to us.
Well, even though she had no luck with discovering the origin of the name, she read a lot and got information, so she still knows something unusual.
“What I guess based on the information I read from other books, the village got its name from the stream. It flows towards Garešnički Bestovac through egg fields. But what is interesting is how the stream and the village still differ today. The stream is pronounced like scrambled eggs, an egg dish, while the village has a different accent,” she explained to us.
She also boasted that the first Kajganijada was held there in May, organized by the Oldtimer Club Kurbla from Garešnice. This idea was “cooked” for many years.
“Our member, Marija Puhović, was frying scrambled eggs in a large pan at a cycling event, and when she threw the scrambled eggs into the hot fat, as it is traditionally baked, it seemed imposing. Over time, the bike fair has somehow subsided, but the idea of the Kajganijada has remained,” says Boro Golenko, president of the Kurbla Oldtimer Club.
This year, ten teams from Zagreb, Bjelovar, Garesnica and Kajgana participated in the event.
“We decided that everyone should bring a written recipe with their scrambled eggs, so in a couple of years we will collect those recipes in a brochure and publish it as “Scrambled eggs in Kajgana” – he explains.
They are satisfied with the first event, but not with the date. This year, the Kajganijada took place on May 30, a national holiday when many other events were organized and perhaps did not attract enough visitors. They think that a new, different and more special date would lead to a better turnout. They plan to turn this event into a tradition, and there were also prizes.
“We try to make the prizes for all the events we organize special and unique, so on this occasion we made a clock out of a small pan for one egg, and in the background there is a cutting board for meat, which can be separated from the clock and used – says Golenko, who invites everyone to follow next year announcement for Kajganijada and come to show their skills in Kajgana.”
You can follow the latest on the Old Timer Kurbla Garesnica Facebook page.
