Two prizes for our folklor group on Sea of Rithm Festival in Balchik '2021

Pictures from the stage in Balchik '2021. 

Sunny Dobrudzha - Summer Feast in Silistra - July 22, 2021

Three Bulgarian Easter traditions on the table

Easter is considered to be the most important  Orthodox' Christians holiday, which boasts the home of the Bulgarian family every year.

Easter or the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest holiday for Orthodox Christians. Although during the Christmas holidays we celebrate the birth of Christ, he has proved that he is the God's Son of precisely after he has risen on the third day. Easter is celebrated by all over Christians on sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ reflects in the most complete form the Christian dogma, namely the belief in the resurrection of the righteous in a better world. On this holiday the Christian religion celebrates the return of Jesus to life on the third day after being crucified and buried. The miernan women find the empty tomb, and Christ appears to Mary Magdalene and the apostles.
The egg has often been seen as a symbol of reincarnation in the spring, and with the emergence of Christianity it has begun to perceive itself as a symbol of the birth of man by nature. In the Orthodox Christian world the egg is used as a special Easter greeting while the catholic painted eggs hide from the children who need to find them.

Every year, tradition calls for eggs to be dyed on Good Thursday or Holy Saturday. In the past, the number of eggs was determined by the number of family members and in the villages by the number of laying hens. Their painting took place early in the morning on the Holy Thursday of the oldest woman in the family. The parakeets, as they called the written eggs, were not meant to be eaten, they were only donated. The first egg was the most powerful and the first red eggs were put in a sieve with a new cloth so the sun could see and smile. It was believed that these eggs had the power to protect and heal.

Eggs, kozunak and lamb are three of the main elements of the Bulgarian Easter festive table. Red eggs also have a different symbolism - when we have a guest on Easter, old people say they should be given a red egg so that wealth never leaves home. The first egg, besides the iconostasis, was also placed in the chestnut box or buried in the middle of the fields to keep from hail. Eggs are eaten at Spassovden, or for 40 days - that is why the hostess should have this in mind when preparing the eggs for "sowing".

In the past the traditional Bulgarian ritual bread was poured on the Bulgarian table. The first Easter cake (Kozunak in Bulgarian) was mixed with a French baker in the seventeenth century, but on his native land he entered relatively late - only in the 20s of the last century. 

According to the Silistra ethnographer Mrs Donka Sabotinova, the kozunak appeared on the Bulgarian table about a century ago transported to Bulgaria probably by Romanian traders between 1915-1920. Until then ritual breads were involved for Easter - in the various villages in Silistra, called also collache, kravai or parmak. According to Mrs  Sabotinova the country of the kozunak is Poland, where it is made from the 17th century. She described in her book "Over Time" the Bulgarian festive folk calendar. The Easter bread or kozunak and similar pastries are present at the Easter table also in Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Italy, Great Britain, Mexico etc. 

And why lamb is also one of the important components of festive customs? Jesus Christ is presented as the Lamb of God and the lamb is associated with his death because he is sacrificed on the day of the Resurrection, he is innocent and sinless and cleanses the sins of the world. The legend tells that even on the cross his knees did not break as they did to all to keep him alive as a living lamb. Lamb can be eaten on the first day after 40 days of fasting.