| The folklore
of Bulgarians – this unbreakable alloy of melodies,
colors, customs, and practices, whose beginning is hidden
back in time, amply demonstrates itself during the Bulgarian
fairs, during the traditional folklore festivals, popular
feasts, name-day parties etc. Those events, so loved
and respected by Bulgarians, are an expression of the
people’s gaiety, their way of life and their culture,
of the history and memory that have been preserved through
the ages. Kukers’ Day
– in the Strandzha mountain, it is an end-of-February
festival. It is only in this area that it manifests
itself in its most ancient form, “white kuker”, that
is, a maskless kuker, with his face uncovered. The
meaning of this ritual feast is providing fertility
and abundance. A kuker may be either a 7- or 8-year-old
boy or a man of 50 or 60. He is clothed in white kid’s
or sheep’s fur. His face is blackened with the soot
of a burnt rye pie that remained from the previous
harvest. Accompanying him is his band – a kuker wench,
a kuker old wife, a doctor, guards for the girl, a
barber, a priest etc. The kuker band visits each house
in the village singing kuker tunes and Christmas carols,
predicting good health and a fine harvest for the
hosts. The same evening, the kuker procession starts
– the “first go” with a wooden plough and the Palikosh
<burn-a-basket> rite. The men hold a straw-filled
burning basket aloft, around it a long round dance
whirls. When the basket collapses, everybody starts
trying to jump over it, wishing good health for themselves.
All Flowers’ Day
– in Bulgarian, Tsvetnitsa, is held on the Sunday
after Lazarus’s Day, a week before Easter. It is dedicated
to the solemn welcome to Jerusalem with palm sprays
offered to Jesus Christ as a Messiah King. Having
brought Lazarus back to life on the Saturday, solemnly
met in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he willingly follows
his way step by step towards the preordained ending
of his earthly life. On this day, Christians put sanctified
willow twigs in their homes that stand for the palm
sprays carried by Jesus to ensure they are healthy
and to be protected from illness and evil.
The people also call Tsvetnitsa Willows’ Day, Flower
Sunday, Vaya, and Dolls’ Day. Tsvetnitsa is the festival
of flowers and blossoms. According to old Bulgarian
customs, everyone bearing a flower’s, a plant’s, a
shrub’s, or a tree’s name has his or her name-day
then. The week starting on the Monday after Tsvetnitsa
is called the Passion Week and signifies sorrow and
suffering.
Nestinars <firewalkers> in the Strandzha
mountain (the first Saturday in June) – the
custom is only to be found in some of the villages
in the Strandzha mountain, in the east of Bulgaria,
and is among the most ancient of preserved Christian
customs. In the village of Balgari, it is performed
in the first week of June. A basic element is the
dance upon live coals. In the feast, the whole village
takes part, but in the ritual dance, it is just the
nestinars. In a state close to a trance, they dance
barefoot over the burning coals in the same way as
their ancestors did, thousands of years ago. The rhythm
of the dance is kept with a sacred drum which is believed
to possess a magical power and can heal a sick person
holding it. There is no other instance of that drum
being made use of.
The nestinars art is inherited. Just the head nestinar
can hand over to the other nestinars the power and
inspiration. Only the son or daughter of the head
nestinar may become a head nestinar himself (herself);
and that only when he is too old or else has passed
away. The nestinars of the village of Balgari say
they have inherited the custom from their grandparents
and great-grandparents as a Christian duty – if they
keep it, they’ll be healthy and reap a rich harvest;
but if they don’t, then a period of diseases and poverty
sets in for their community.
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