Balkan Bulgarian Folklore
A trip to the Balkans in general and Bulgaria in particular is not complete without exposure to Folklore. If there is something that the people of the Balkans have excelled at throughout the ages, it is music, dance, singing, rituals and festivals, masks and costumes. In this context, it is important to note that Balkan Folklore has deep roots in the past, ever since humans were hunter-gatherers and lived in harmony with nature.
With the agricultural revolution, the connection between humans and natural life was damaged to some extent, and the replacement was rituals and events marking the blooming of flowers, the changes of seasons, cycles, and times of the year. In other words, the rituals and festivals were tools in processing and anchoring the natural energies, which in the past were more available to humans due to their wanderings around the earth and their connection to nature and the seasons. The rituals and festivals were associated with the growth and ripening cycles of plants and the life cycles of animals.
With the monotheistic religions taking over Europe, the ancient pagan beliefs disappeared and even this alternative connection with nature was severed. Add to that the industrial revolution and life in artificial conditions that the cities offer, and we will understand how the harmony between humans and Nature was disrupted. But in the Balkans, the ancient tradition of festivals and ceremonies was preserved, finding a home within Orthodox Christianity.
This is the reason why we can find in Bulgaria a unique system of Folklore, customs and celebrations throughout the year, which takes place in the following order: on the shortest day of the year, the Koledari songs take place, at the beginning of January – the water and ice ceremonies, in the height of winter between the end of January and the beginning of March, there are spectacular festivals of masks and costumes The Kukeri and Survaki, at the beginning of spring Baba Marta (“Grandmother March”) brings the tradition of Martinitsa, and with the coming of Easter we have the fire ceremonies, before Easter young girls observe the tradition of Lazaruvane, Easter is associated with the coming of spring and the revival of the earth, after Easter comes a time of celebration The Shepherds of St. George and the ceremonies of the month of May, and at the beginning of June the ceremonies of the Anastanari are held.
In general, the annual cycle of rituals and folklore in the Balkans revolves around two main events: one is the shortest day of the year, when there are rituals performed mainly by young men to drive away the forces of evil and enable a new beginning—rituals that link to Christmas and the Feast of Baptism – the Epiphany. The second is the spring rituals associated with Easter, that are performed mainly by young women who grow and nurture the energy of the New Year.
Musical instruments
The musical instruments characteristic of Bulgaria in particular, and the Balkans in general, are the Kaval, a shepherd’s flute with three parts made of wood; the Gadulka, a violin with one string; the Gaida, the Bagpipe of the large type in the Rhodope Mountains and the small type in the Balkan Mountains; and a drum called Tapan. Of all of them, the Bagpipe is considered to be the most typical instrument.
There are other Musical instruments related to specific regions, such as the Tamboura, a kind of mandolin that appears in the southwest of Bulgaria—the region of Macedonia; the Zurna, which is a trumpet that appears only in the Pirin Mountains; the small bagpipes that are characteristic of the Dobruja region; and more.
Today, other instruments such as the accordion, clarinet, trumpets, guitar, violin, double bass, as well as drums, have entered folklore since the 19th century, especially in the regions of Bulgarian Macedonia and Sofia, and are often used.
Balkan dance
The absolute majority of Balkan dances in general, and Bulgarian dances in particular, are called Horo and are done in a circle. The Horo is somewhat reminiscent of other circle dances around the world. During the dance, the people hold hands and move counter-clockwise, sometimes letting go of the hands and turning independently, then coming back and forming the brotherhood.
There are also dances that are danced in a line or in a semi-circle, as in the ancient ceremonies. The Bulgarians hold hands or hold each other’s belts while dancing, so there is mutual support and they feel as one body. Dances of this kind were a means of supporting the community and the feeling of “togetherness,” especially in times of distress, but also aimed at creating a sense of sharing and an expression of joy.
Koledari songs
The Koledari are groups of young men who go from house to house, sing a special song and bless the owners of the houses. The word Koleda in Bulgarian means “Christmas”, the bands sing a song to every resident of the house, and even to the chickens and goats, in the days before Christmas.
For the most part, the Koledari are future grooms of the village or City. Sometimes, they are the ones who are supposed to enlist in the army. They go from house to house with wooden sticks and beat the floor while singing, they sift wheat kernels, bless and receive candy and pocket money from the house dwellers. In return, they search the house for demons, shout, and jump, hit the floor and dance the Kolo.
The leader of the Koledari gives the blessing, and he is also the only one among them who is married. He is called “Saba”. The Koledari gather at his house on the eve of the Koleda and go about their activities at midnight, walking around the streets and making noise with bells and rattles. One of them disguises himself as a pregnant woman, the rest are disguised as human figures, animals and a mix between the two. Sometimes they are decorated with white, black or red horns, reverse sheepskin, bull’s tail with bells, cowhide and more. Among other activities, they spread cannabis fibers.
In many of the Koledari songs the singers tell about themselves, they call themselves brothers in arms, each of them is a warrior and a rider, imitating their patron, the warrior God – who fights the serpent and brings back the cosmic water that was blocked by him.
Another symbol they use in the songs is the “golden keys”, which open the locked spring of water. The opening is made by a good hero called in Bulgarian Vunak, who manages to get the sheep with the “golden horns” and bring it on his flying horse (reminiscent of the quest for the Golden Fleece).
The good hero Vunak has a central role in the songs; he has the golden keys and is therefore the master of the universe. The Koledari tradition recalls the Thracian tradition of a rider god. Another connection to the Thracians is in a name that is often heard in the songs – Bilna or Binda, an abbreviation of the name of Bendida, a Thracian goddess associated with the moon and the hunt, that is the equivalent of the Greek Artemis.
The Koledari tradition is a direct descendant of ancient rites of passage that turned boys into men. In those ceremonies, they wore theater masks that represented the journey to the world of the dead, “the other world.” The ceremonies depicted the struggle with its demonic inhabitants and the return. In other words, the young teenagers died temporarily and were resurrected, just like the sun in the short days of the year.
Survaki tradition
After the Koledari, comes the time of the Survaki and Kukeri. It is a tradition in which groups of young boys go around the houses with sticks shaped like Hermes staffs called Survaka, decorated with dried fruits, popcorn, and a kind of round pretzel. They sing and bless the house.
The god Hermes had a staff called Caduceus. It is one of the oldest symbols in the world, appearing already at the time of the Sumerian culture in Mesopotamia. The staff is two snakes coiled in both directions in a form reminiscent of DNA, and at the end a winged disc reminiscent of the sun. According to Greek mythology, the staff was given to Hermes by Apollo and associated with medicine, but it is different from the staff of Asclepius, which has only one snake. In the Middle Ages, the Caduceus staff became the symbol of the star and metal Mercury.
In general, the Caduceus represents balance; the golden rod is the celestial equator, and two serpents are the male and female principles, represented by the solar and lunar orbits. The place where the snakes’ body is far from the central stick represents the increase of day in the six months from December to June, and vice versa. The Survaka is like the caduceus in that its outer frame is two spirals and it symbolizes the tree of life.
time between Christmas – 25.12 and Epiphany – the Feast of Baptism on 6.1 is considered in Bulgarian folklore tradition to be a time of danger, the darkness that exists between the birth of Jesus and his baptism, between the time he appeared in the world physically and the time Christ entered it. Since this time is dangerous, the evil spirits that appear during it must be expelled in two ways: one is open and unified – Koledari, and the other is covert, insidious, and individual – the Survaki and Kukeri traditions.
There are several theories about the origin of the name Surva. One of them is related to the Thracian sun god who had many names, among them Sura or Sureget, hence the meaning of Sur is sun. The Survaki tradition serves as a ritual that helps harvest, fertility, health, and good luck.
The Survaki visit people’s houses after nightfall, so that the sun does not “catch” them on the way. The power is present at night, and they lose it with the arrival of morning. During the visits, they dance and perform ritual acts. They gather in the village square and perform ritual acts including mock sacred marriages. The house dwellers must show respect and give the Survaki a gift.
Purifying water
In ancient pagan belief systems all over the world, there are two elements that purify, each in a different way. The first is fire, and the second is water.
Naturally, water was perceived as a cleansing and life-giving element, starting with the ancient Sumerian civilization, continuing with the emphasis on water purity in the Persian religion — Zarathustra — and ending with the importance of baptism in Judaism and Christianity.
The Thracians held purification ceremonies related to fire and water, perhaps under the influence of the East. These ceremonies found a home in Orthodox Christianity. The purification rituals associated with fire are celebrated at the beginning of spring, and especially in the context of Easter. The purification rituals associated with water are celebrated in the winter period, particularly in connection with the New Year and the baptism of Jesus on the Christian Epiphany, at the beginning of January (6.1 according to the Gregorian calendar)
On the night between December 31st and January 1st, the women and girls in villages across Bulgaria bring a flower that they choose, placing it in a copper bowl with water together with a ring or another personal object. They leave the bowl with the purifying water outside overnight, and the next day they collect the flowers along with the objects that were left in the water. They lift the flower and the object on a stick and loudly congratulate the girl who placed it there. This ceremony predicts her future marriage. All the girls dance with the copper bowl of water, and there is a special song for this occasion. If the water freezes — which often happens during this period — it is considered a good sign.
A week later, on January 6th, the day of Jesus’ baptism is celebrated. On this day Jesus was Baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan river, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descended upon him, heralding the beginning of his ministry in the world.
Epiphany day is called “St. Jordan’s Day” In the Balkans, and according to their belief, during this day rivers takes on human qualities. And so, half-naked Bulgarians jump into the frozen river water in pursuit of a cross thrown there by the priest. They stand in the water, sing and play the Bagpipe — the water cleanses them of their sins and enables a new beginning, as the cross instills holiness in the water.
Kukeri – the mask festival of the Balkans
This is the main event of the winter, held several times from mid-January until Lent, which begins about seven weeks before Easter (usually the beginning of March). During this period there is a series of Kukeri masquerade festivals held all over Bulgaria, thousands of exhibitors and tens and even hundreds of thousands of visitors take part in the festivals. Bulgaria’s Masquerade Festivals (Kukeri) are an exceptional event recently recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Event, and they outshine similar festivals across Europe in authenticity, enthusiasm and interest.
The Kukeri are masked men who wear heavy bell chains and earmuffs around their bodies. The word Kukeri is of Thracian origin and means tall people in masks. There are many theories about the origin of the masks and what they represent: one of them believes that they are related to the Greek God of wine Dionysus, or more precisely to Dionysus’ accompanying satyrs, who were the model for the Kukeri. Dionysus is the God of festivals and vegetation, but also the mediator between the world of the living and the dead. During the days of the ceremony the spirits and demons, including those of the dead, rise to the surface of the earth and must be returned to their place
Beside the major festivals there are also village ceremonies, In each village a Kukeri ceremony takes place on its own special day. The ceremony begins in the center of the village, from where the Kukeri leave and go from house to house, blessing for health and fertility, and return to the village square, where they jump while dancing the bells enthusiastically. According to their belief, the louder the noise, the more the evil spirits will be scared and run away. Then there is a ceremonial performance followed by a party and dancing.
During the ceremony, the participants present a happy family eating dinner by candlelight, praying and living in harmony, when suddenly they are attacked by the forces of evil, and the Kukeri do everything they can to drive them away. In addition to this, a mock marriage ceremony is performed between a man disguised as a woman and a man disguised as a bridegroom, including a so-called sexual act, the woman becoming pregnant and the birth of the baby. The marriage symbolizes the possibility of the fruitfulness of the fields and is a continuation of the sacred marriage tradition of ancient times. In addition, there is a demonstration of plowing and sowing and other agricultural operations, a Kukeri priest blesses the “young couple” and the crowd by sprinkling water on them.
An important figure in these ceremonies is a man disguised as a bear. The bear symbolizes the wild, evil force. He attacks the people and tries to kidnap the baby, but the participants fight him and manage to take him over. Other figures are a horse represented by two people and a king, who is sometimes carried in a chariot.
During the ceremony, blessings are said and there is usually a large group of people participating in it. In addition to the bell-wearing Kukeris who show off and dress up, there are musicians (especially drummers and bagpipe players) and dancers. They move in a special step, with the bells on their bodies swinging, and thereby symbolizing the full ears of corn moving on the stems. The bells are arranged according to sounds, and the Kukeri usually jump at a certain rhythm, all together, to ring the bells, and all the more is fine.
In addition to bells, the costume of the Kukeri includes scary masks of monsterous animals, or grotesque figures that cover the face. Sometimes there are two masks, one in front and one in the back. Above the head, there is often an addition that enlarges the costume and gives additional volume for the purpose of scaring the demons; Sometimes it’s a pointy hat with sequins, other times a wooden frame with feathers or an elongated hat with furs.
The mask of the Kukeri is individual and the wearer prepares it himself for a long time, thus it largely expresses his soul. The rest of the body is covered in costumes of furs and skins, mainly of goat or sheep. The costumes are hung over with onions, garlic, corn leaves, herbs, ribbons and shiny plastics and glasses. Horns of ram, bull, lamb and goats are usually attached to the costume. The costumes cover the whole body and head; the wooden frames are covered with furs, feathers, and decorated with ribbons (mostly red).
Martenitsa
Slavic months have the names of people. The month of March is named after Grandma (or Baba in Bulgarian) Marta, who is a capricious old woman with unpredictable behavior that needs to be appeased. And so, on March 1st, there is a holiday in which people give each other gifts in the form of red and white embroidered threads. Sometimes the threads are shaped like a woman or a man, but mostly they are just threads braided together. The white symbolizes the snow that fell in winter, and the red symbolizes the sunrise or the snow of spring.
Martenitsa braids and dolls are given as gifts by men and women to each other. According to custom, they must be worn until the first stork is seen in the sky. Then, they must be hung on the first fruit tree nearby, to please Baba Marta. And so, you can find trees all over Bulgaria (such as wild plum) decorated with red and white threads — especially trees in sacred places.
Purifying fire
In the Balkans, there are several rituals related to the lighting of bonfires, which are performed on the Sunday before the start of the Easter fast. The fire purifies the person and prepares him for the fast. In some ceremonies, the participants jump over the fire or carry torches and light candles.
The bonfire should be as high as possible, since the fire that rises connects heaven and earth. The heat it spreads around drives away the evil spirits; the sparks of fire are evil spirits that are burned. People dance around the fire and thereby “cleanse themselves.” After the fire subsides, they go over the ashes and clean up for good. In Greece, ceremonies of this kind are called Fanos ceremonies
Lazaruvane
Lazaruvane ceremonies take place on the Feast of St. Lazarus, eight days before Easter and one day before Palm Sunday. At this time, young women wear flowers and go from house to house, blessing the people, thus enabling the coming of the mental and emotional spring (in addition to the physical spring). This is a time of blossoming and revival, fertility, and conception.
Unlike the Koledari ceremonies that take place at the height of winter and are attended by young men, with the arrival of spring the responsibility for the ceremonies passes to the young women. Similar to the procreation process, in which the man gives the sperm and the woman raises the fetus in her womb and the baby after its birth, so in this year’s cycle of rituals: the young men give the codes through the dances and songs of the Koledari, and the young women bring the nurturing and refinement into expression, ripening, and bearing fruit in the dances and songs of the Lazaruvane.
The Lazaruvane is performed by girls before the wedding just as the Koledari rituals are performed by boys before their wedding. These are beautiful maidens wearing colorful costumes decorated with flowers and on their heads ribbons and flower bouquets. In both cases the participants go from house to house and visit all the people of the village. The Lazaruvane maidens dance, sing and greet the owners of the house and those who live in it with blessings and wishes of health for the blossoming and enjoyment of life with the coming of spring. They abundantly and fruitfully bless humans as well as the domestic animals, bow before each person separately, and serve each one personally.
The ceremony is very reminiscent of the classical Greek tradition of the Caryatids, maidens of the City of Athens, who would carry baskets with reeds and flowers on their heads in ceremonial celebrations in honor of the Goddess Artemis. Six caryatids carved in stone support the Archatheon structure on the Acropolis of Athens, and indeed the Lazaruvane ceremony in Bulgaria is usually performed by six maidens.
The Lazaruvane ceremony is a kind of initiation for young women, preparing them for matriculation and marriage and integration into society and attests to their ability to give birth to children and raise them, take care of the home and nurture it. The young women are usually dressed in bridal clothes, or in their most beautiful clothes, which they usually embroider themselves. Only girls who have become women are allowed to participate in the ceremonies
Saint Lazarus is a man whom Jesus resurrected from the dead on the Mount of Olives. Indeed, nature is resurrected from hibernation at this period. The ceremony is accompanied by the presentation of a table of abundance and idyllic rural life.
Easter
The most important Feast in the Balkans in particular and in Orthodox Christianity in general is Easter. As part of the holiday, there are colorful ceremonies, processions and candle lighting, Easter eggs and special dishes are distributed. During the holiday, sadness and grief alternate with joy and dancing.
The events of the holiday begin on “Good Friday”, which is a day of mourning, as this is the time when Jesus was crucified and died. In the villages there are funeral processions of a coffin decorated with flowers which is displayed in the Church and people pass under it.
On the following day, there is eager anticipation for a miracle to happen. On the evening of “Great Saturday,” towards midnight, all the people gather in the churches, whether in Sofia, Plovdiv, or anywhere else in Bulgaria and the Balkans. The plazas outside the churches are filled with a large crowd holding candles in their hands. Towards midnight, the prayers and ceremonies reach their peak and silence prevails. Then the bells begin to ring, and the priests begin to sing.
At exactly midnight, a special fire—sometimes brought from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and lit by the priest—passes among the people, who light each other’s candles. The squares and churches all over Bulgaria are filled with light, and everyone proclaims: “Jesus is risen!” People hug each other, knock the hard-boiled Easter eggs together, and celebrate the “Holy Fire”.
Anastenaria
The Anastenaria is a ritual of walking on fire that takes place at the beginning of June, the day of Constantine and Eelena (3.6) every year. It is a continuation of an ancient Thracian tradition that possibly has more ancient origins, it was practiced as part of an Orphic ritual by devotees, which thereby proved their supernatural power, and is related to entering trance states.
The Anastenaria ceremonies enabled the participants and witnesses to pass through a process of cleansing and purification that brought about the cleansing and purification of the environment and the renewal of the world’s energies after the spring. Fire has two aspects to it: the physical aspect – heat, and the spiritual aspect – light. Anastenaria connects the two and introduces a dimension of light into the world of heat – the physical.
The ceremony is preserved in its ancient form in the Strandja Mountains in southeastern Bulgaria and is also held in villages in northern Greece. It was adopted by Christianity and attributed to Emperor Constantine (the man who converted Rome to Christianity and moved the capital to nearby Constantinople) and his mother Helena.
In the days before the Anastenaria[1], the Anastenari, women and men, gather in a special house called “Konaki”, where holy Icons (pictures) of Helena and Constantine are kept. Tradition says that these Icons were miraculously discovered many years ago and are kept on a shelf designed for this purpose. Each Icon has a carrying handle and is covered in fabric.
The main ceremony lasts for three days. It starts on “Constantine and Helena Day.” The Anastenari meet in the “Konaki” and begin playing the Thracian bagpipe and a big drum, dancing and entering into trance states. In this state, they believe that St. Constantine calls them and takes over their bodies, and as long as they dance, he controls them.
The ceremony lasts until midnight and includes a cycle of dancing that lasts about half an hour, followed by a break, after which the dancing starts again.
When the dancers gather in the “Konaki,” it begins with a sad song about a woman who was separated from her family and captured by a Turk. The song, accompanied by the playing of the bagpipe, causes a feeling of sadness and sometimes even tears. The tension builds and causes all kinds of physical reactions in the dancers, and at some point, someone jumps up and starts dancing, and the bagpipe plays faster to the rhythm of two quarters. The drum starts beating, and everyone starts dancing.
At first, these are wild and violent, sporadic movements. Some dancers get into trouble, and others try to help them. Little by little, the struggling dancer manages to dance in response to the music and receives the icon of St. Constantine. The dancer dances proudly, holding the icon in his hands, and this symbolizes receiving the saint’s supernatural powers. The dance now expresses joy and health.
The next morning, they gather at the konaki house and go with musicians and candle holders to a holy well at the edge of the village, where they sacrifice a black sheep to St. Constantine and continue to dance all day. After dark, everyone approaches the remains of a large bonfire that burned for several hours and left embers. Thousands of people come to watch the spectacle in which the Anastenaris walk on the fire coals, back and forth, and sometimes also touch the burning coals with their hands – shouting “I wish the coals would turn to ashes!”, they don’t stop until the entire bonfire turns to ashes, and then they all go together to the Konaki house, where a meal is served.
While the Anastenari are walking on the fire they dance to the rhythm of seven eighths, when they are at home they dance to the rhythm of two quarters. The rhythm of seven eighths is related to the spiritual path and it is the one that opens before the new Anastenari.
The goal of the Anastenari is to reach spiritual light and the way is to be controlled by the saint. Many times the dancers are people who were called to this path by suffering, the saint punished them in order to direct them to their destiny, and there is a connection to the existing group of Anastenaris. After passing through initiation they become an Anastenari themselves, suffering becomes happiness, they receive the power of healing and are able to teach, heal and pass on the knowledge to other people. Walking on the fire is proof of the power of the saint who gets a hold on them, it shows they are not in their own possession.
Anastenaris have a special power of St. Constantine that allows them to practice healing. A person who suffers from weakness, lack of appetite, insomnia, or depression is told that this is the curse of the saint because he was not properly respected, and then the Anastenaris come into action.
During the ceremony, there is a transition of St. Constantine from a punishing personality that causes illness to a benevolent figure who restores a state of health and protection. The apprentice adopts the morality and example of the saint, “comes out” of himself, and becomes an Anastenari.
The famous Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek) tells in his excellent book The Fratricides about the Anastenaria ceremony performed by the Greek population of the Strandja Mountains in southeastern Bulgaria. I highly recommend reading thisbook.
Notes
[1]t he descriptions of the ceremonies as recorded in the 70’s in Greece by Loring Mendel, in the Anstaneri festivals that are held today in the Strandja Mountains the format is slightly different
Danforth, L. M. (1978). The Anastenaria: a study in Greek ritual therapy. Princeton University.
