The
masquerade games and customs in Bulgaria have ancient origin and
could be observed as inherent to the ancient heathendom. With
their strange clothes made of fur, cut shirts or women’s
clothes, sewed up of bands, mixture of national costumes and animal
masks and horrifying faces, with continuous ringing of different
in size and sound bells, these masquerade games and customs with
their lively dancing ritual steps reflect the eternal fight between
Light and Darkness, Good and Evil. On the first Sunday before
Lent, masked koukery perform ritualistic processional dances to
ward off evil spirits and ensure fertility at the onset of growing
season.
On
the first of March we celebrate the begguining of the spring.
The day is called Baba Marta(or Grandma Marta in English). On
that day you give a special present called "martenitza"
to all the people you love. "Martenitza" are small two
coloured and made of thread - white and red. Usually they (the
martenitzas) look like a girl and a boy together. When someone
gives you a martenitza you should hold it wheather on your neck
or pinned on your shirt until you see a stork. After that you
can hang it on a blown tree for fertility.
May
21 - Saints Constantine and Elena Day - Nestinarstvo, or fire
dancing; practitioners walk barefoot on hot coals in small rural
villages in the Strandzha mountains (or increasingly in tourist
resorts) in this pagan event marking the arrival of summer. It
is believed the ritual is descended from Dionysian rites practiced
by ancient Thracians.
The mistress of the house got up long before sunrise to bake a
fresh round loaf, decorated on top with different symbolical images
and magic signs designed to ensure rich crops. She would also
cook a chicken stuffed with rice, and fill up a buklitsa (a wooden
wine bottle) with wine.