I know I know, its been awhile
Sorry yet again for the lapse in blogging. Winter has brought out a lethargy in me I'm just not happy with and my desire to write about my "adventures" has been a victim to it. But, I do have some good pics to share and some intersesting info to pass on, so enjoy some more tidbits about Bulgarian culture and traditions.....
Over the long weekend of Bulgaria’s National Independence Day (March 3rd), I got to partake in and experience one of what I think is Bulgaria’s best cultural traditions. A few times a year the Kukeri Festivals take place at different places around Bulgaria. Most of the larger ones take place in the Southern part of Bulgaria called the Rhodopes (the area of Bulgaria I had originally hoped to assigned to.)
The town of Shiroka Luka hosted one of the larger festivals and is the place I found myself (along with about 2 dozen other volunteers and scores of Bulgarians and other visitors) on Sunday March 5. The festivities began with a group from Ireland called the Irish Mummers. I think they are probably the Irish equivalent the Kukers in Bulgaria. They were a large group that included the many characters; some adorned with costumes made of rope and some as characters from Irelands history. They were a good group, had a very short man (could have been a leprechaun) playing bagpipes and had a fiddler as well. Of course good Prince Phillip vanquished the enemy in the end and even the fiddler swinging around a plastic chicken got in on the celebrations.
The Irish Mummers
The Bulgarian Kukers come in all different shapes and sizes. Like the national dancers’ costumes, the different regions and towns each had their own interpretation of the Kuker costume. The one major commonality with Kukers is the presence of bells. They can be as small as a hand and as large as a bell in a church steeple. The bells are worn around the necks and waists of the Kukers and as the men dance around the bells ring in unison to bring health, good fortune and prosperity to the people. The costumes however are the most amazing part. There are men with masks 4 foot high, men in animal fur from foot to neck with a dragon papermach mask, med dressed in traditional costumes but have fur faces and men dressed completely in fur, including a 3 foot tall mask also covered completely in fur.
Getting to this festival took a ridiculous amount of time, 5 buses (one way) and a return trip to one town that included a 4 hour ride to cover 70 kilometers (about 45 miles.) All of that said however, it was the most amazing Bulgarian tradition I have experienced.
Here is a little bit of info I found on the net, gives a bit more background info on the tradition that is Kukeri
In the rural (farming) villages of Bulgaria, the "Kukeri" is a important masked ritual, carried forward from the Thracians. They dance in the last days of the winter, just before nature comes back to life.
This participants in this ritual are male only, dressed in sheepskin garments and wearing scary masks and chanove (copper bells) on their belts, dancing and singing Christmas songs and chants, with the intention to scare away the evil spirits or ghosts which people believed came back to the living ones in winter.
The esoteric meaning in Kukeri is that through a prayer to the god of vegetation together with magical operations there may be obtained a sympathetic influence over nature using the energy of phallic dances performed within orgiastic rites as well as in the final act of plowing and sowing (which is the same through the direct magical connection phallus-plow / vagina-earth / semen-grain) in order to increase fertility
The ritual is a mixture between Christian and pagan traditions and symbols. There is a strong correlation between the event and the peasant life. It is a unique folklore, which can be seen only in Bulgaria. The traditional mask is multi-coloured, covered with beads, ribbons and woolen tassels. The dress too, is colorful and florid once again up to the individual imagination. The heavy swaying of the main mummer is meant to represent wheat heavy with grain, and the noisy clanging of the bells is intended to drive away the evil and sickness.
As recently as the end of the 19th century, the importance of the Kukeri was so considerable that fightings between two different Kukeri groups from neighboring villages often resulted in real, not imitative, murderings.
I’m including pictures from the festival, I hope you enjoy
