SUMMER HOLIDAYS
MIDSUMMER DAY (ENYOVDEN)
A National holiday, celebrated on June 24 – the day of the summer equinox, which coincides with the Christian feast of St. John the Baptist. At the heart of the festival is embedded the pagan cult of the sun and thunder. To prevent from hail and to ripen crops, circular ritual crawls are carried out by maiden horo in the fields, lakes and the village itself. Participants in horo carry on their shoulders “Enyo’s bride”- a little girl dressed as a bride. The girl plays a major role in the ritual of foretelling on maiden posies for health and marriage. According to folk tradition, herbs and flowers have healing powers if they are picked up early in the Midsummer day. They are entwined in Enyovski wreath of 66 and a half herbs, people bend and pass through the wreath in order to be of good health and luck. Today, the custom Midsummer bride is the best preserved in villages in western Strandja – Fakia, Momina church, and others.
Early in Enyovden day girls go to the forest to pick flowers. After that they sit in the shade under a tree and make posies for each family member. At dusk two girls pour water in silence in a tinned-copper kettle. Water is called “silent” because while pouring and bringing it the girls have to remain silent. If someone meets them and they say a word by chance, they pour their water and go back to pour it once again. Once they have brought the water and the sun begins to set, each of the girls carries their posies. One of the girls cover her head with a “bandana” and collects the other girls’ flower bunches. Every girl has set a sign on their posy, so that she is able to recognize it. Girls dip their flowers in the pot and cover them with a red apron.
The pot with the flowers is then placed under rose bush for the night. It was believed that mermaids and other unearthly forces were dancing around the flowers.
On the morning of Enyovden too early before the sun comes out, people go to a high hill. Girls tied their waists so that they do not hurt them while digging or reaping, and roll down the meadow.
The same girl who had dipped the flower bunches, blindfolded with a red scarf sits near the pot. All the other girls and women are sitting around her. The girl puts her hand in the pot and takes out one of the flower bunches without showing it. Some of the old women calls a wish, and then the girl gives the flowers to its owner. This continues till all the bunches are taken out of the pot. After that the women go to the fields to harvest. In the evening girls and children bring firewood from the forest to lit a blazing fire, around which the girls and the boys play.
This custom Enyovden has been performed every year in Malko Tarnovo.
BUTTERFLY
“Butterfly” is a ritual which has no fixed date. It is usually performed during the “Peter’s month”, when the weather gets very dry.
This folk ritual is performed to induce rain during a long drought. Only young girls participate (about a dozen), dressed in shirts with green branches hanging from their belts (branches of elder, ivy or willow). The ritual group of young girls is led by the “Butterfly” – a young girl who must have been orphaned or the first- born child. At the appointed day the group gathers in the home of the “Butterfly”, or at the river and dresses the Butterfly girl into leaves of elder. All girls are barefoot and with loose hair. They lead the butterfly through the village, entering into every house and performing a special selection of ritual songs. Housewives welcome them with a water filled bucket, and the butterfly shakes her hands, as if they are wings. After the girls finish their tour, they go back to the river where they strip the green butterfly clothing and throw it in the river. After that they all spring with water and pour plenty of it over the butterfly. This ritual was performed during the recent years of drought running in its authentic form in any part of Bourgas area – the villages of Lyulyakovo, Podvis, Momina church, and Malko Tarnovo.
FIRE DANCERS (NESTINARI)
Fire dancing is an ancient Bulgarian and Greek tradition, where people dance barefoot on embers (coals).
The ritual is performed in some villages between Strandja Mountain and the Black Sea on the day of St. Constantine and St. Helena holiday. In Bulgaria, the custom has been preserved in its authentic form in one village in Strandja Mountain – the village of Bulgari. In the past, “fire dance” villages were also Kosti, and Brodilovo, and Grammatikovo, Slivarovo and Kondolovo.
The whole village participate in the celebration, but in the ritual dance only the fire dancers. They are a kind of chosen by the saint – patron of the festival, who see his face, hear his voice, the spirit of the saint dwells in them, captures them and they can see the future, discover secrets, and give advice.
Fire-dancers are men and women from one family clan and their ability is inherited by sons and daughters. Konak of dancers is a small chapel in the house of the head fire-dancer (nestinar). In the center of the iconostasis, facing east, are the icons of St. Constantine and St. Helena, and around them are the icons of the Virgin Mary, St. George, St. Panteleimon, Holy Land prints and red cloth decorated with the sun. In Konak there is also the sacred drum, which sets the beat of the festive procession and dance. It is not used on another occasion. It is believed that it possesses magical powers (it can heal the man who’s carrying it from sickness).
All head to the Konak on the day of the feast, after the church service, led by the priest and the chief fire-dancer. Then the drum starts beating and the bagpipe plays special fire-dancing melody. Some of the dancers are the “caught” (this is a special religious ecstasy state) and they begin dancing with the icon of the saint in their hand. Then the procession goes to the spring, named after the saint, and makes a big feast with boiled mutton. After sunset all return to the village square, where they see a bonfire of piled wood. The young dance horo under the sound of bagpipes and drums. When the bonfire turns into glowing embers, the fire – dancers begin their dance.