I pledge to... ('promise' was too strong of a word)
…update this blog regularly since apparently people who care about me read it to make sure I'm still alive
…dance more often
That's all I've got so far.
Before I start my official post I've got some things to write about. First off, my camera is broken but I can post pictures taken from my cell phone. That means I have to limit what I can capture since I must meet two conditions: there must be natural light and both subject and my hand must be very steady (and you try keeping kindergarteners still for more than 2 seconds). Also, yesterday Russia (or Ukraine, depending on who you're talking to) cut off Europe's supply of natural gas. Because Bulgaria doesn't have much reserves it means that people are living without central heating and it means we can't bake any more bread (no bread!!). Today the kids only had 15 minutes of each class every hour and tomorrow they may not go back. Luckily for us in the village everything is heated with gas stoves.
---official post begins now, everything above this line is completely worthless information---
CHRISTMAS
We had a Christmas party for the kids in the village. The kindergarteners and I had been preparing songs, dances and poems. Everyone gathered in the chitalishte, cultural center, and the teachers (incl. me) were given beautiful flowers. My favorite part was when Diado Koleda (Santa Claus) came for a visit. Santa was different from what I remembered though. He was very skinny, had a raspy smoker's voice, talked loudly and often, and reminded me of Christo from the village…hmmm, makes you wonder. He passed out gifts and each kid had a prepared poem to say. Then the five older girls had a special Christmas dance prepared which was done to a rap song and had them shedding the top layers of their clothing. It was a crowd pleaser.
Then I went to Razgrad, the "city", to spend Christmas Eve and day with my colleague and her family. We had a traditional Bulgarian meal on Christmas Eve which has 7, 9, 11 or 13 dishes on the table (or else it's unlucky). The meal is vegetarian and consists of bean soup, dried fruit from the garden, bread, homemade pickled vegetables and homemade wine. They leave the food on the table over night to keep the spirits pleased.
I thought it was strange there wasn't that magical Christmas feeling as we went to bed. I woke up before the kids and walked out to find…an empty tree. New Year's Eve and Name Days are bigger here than Christmas. Besides a visit to the Orthodox church to light a candle, the day passed like any other. Then at night we sat down to a meal with the neighbors. We had steak, shish kebabs, potatoes, pitka (traditional sweet bread) and afterwards we had my homemade pumpkin pie.
NEW YEARS
New Year's Eve Bulgarians have big celebrations with their families. They eat a lot of traditional food, they drink lots of homemade rakia and they light a lot of explosives. There is a tradition of baking pitka and placing a coin in the dough. It's believed that the person who finds the coin will be wealthy in the new year. Once the clock struck midnight the winter sky was filled with huge fireworks exploding from all corners of the city. People were holding the fireworks, lighting them and then throwing them into the air from their apartment balconies. They certainly start the new year fearless. And boy must fireworks be cheap because there were a lot.
After that we walked to the center where the Christmas tree was. Music was playing and people were dancing and drinking. Soon the mayor came out and said some well wishes. Then I saw one of the best fireworks shows I've ever seen. They were lit so close to us that the explosions seemed to fill the entire sky above us. We craned our necks to watch the lights and literally be showered with fireworks debris…it was magical. After the show, a band came out and played Bulgarian folk songs and we all grabbed hands and started dancing the horo around the square. We left once we felt frostbite set it.
There is a tradition on New Year's Day in Bulgaria where the children make a special decorated stick, a soorvachka, and they pat the backs of the adults, saying a blessing for the New Year. Two boys came to my colleague's house and they blessed us on the back, which is believed to make our wishes come true and make the new year productive and fertile. In return, those blessed give the boys a gift of apples, nuts and a coin.
P.S. I know the pictures aren't showing up, something is wrong with the program (or maybe it's my 90s era internet connection). Slowly I will try and re-post them but until this program starts working I won't be posting any new pictures.
1 comment:
I was so going to ask how the holidays where for you and culturally how were they but that sums them up. Can not wait till april and I am still studing. Keep enjoying Bulgaria and stay safe.
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