St George's day on a mountaintop

So the next morning - actual George's day, we went back to the town square to catch the beginning of the procession which starts by circling the church 3 times counter-clockwise and then progresses up a rather difficult mountain path to a special meadow in an oak grove with a ruined stone chapel near the top of the mountain.
( a journey of 20,000 steps begins )

(no subject)

Yes it's in the process of writing these that I'm finding some details have escaped my memory already - like am I sure that we did the dancing on the hill before we ate? or could it have been after? also looking at notes I see that I forgot to mention that previously the specific george's day ritual dance would have likely been lead by a younger woman. Preferably a pregnant one in some places, in others by one who could cry easily. Remember they want rain. It didn't rain this year, and if it had a lot fewer people would have made it up the mountain, but we did hear thunder on the climb down. While George's day has the most details to report I guess it is rather too much to think I can finish these tonight, I'm already very tired and it's getting late.

Ranipolye in Voinyagovo

The day after St George's Day is called Ranipolye or Poliraniye and in some places this is thought to be St George's sister.

Traditionally on the boundary between the village and the wilds would have been a dance where the brides of the past-year switch from their wedding clothes to their married women's outfits. They remove their shoes and dance barefoot also ritually demonstrating the transition. The tradition is that for 40 days after being married the bride can not walk barefoot on the earth because she will burn it. Someone in our group was saying this had to do with the earth mourning the unnatural patriarchal institution of marriage... I don't think so, seems like there is a much more straightforward reason a bride would be so 'hot' just after marriage.
( Read more... )

Oreshnits and knizharitsa!

So the next day we actually went to three villages! All in the general vicinity of Topolograv. By the ritual calendar it was a trip backwards in time.

In the morning was Oreshnits (Walnuts) which used to be the principal crop, but now pine is. The town itself used to be Greek, the people in the town were Bulgarians who lived by the Marmar Sea and due to shifts in country borders had wound up being in Greece. The people were exchanged in 1920.

The group here was a group of teenagers doing a reconstruction of the Easter dances which were traditionally the end of the girls initiation period. ( Read more... )

xliabovo

After lunch we picked up the rest of our people as some had taken the morning off, and headed for Hliabovo.

Here there were two groups of girls waiting for us. Teenagers who were going to demonstrate the St Lazarus day dances/songs and elementary-aged girls who also had a few dances to show us.
( Read more... )

We went across the street to a cafe for more cookies and tea/coffee/soda and chatting with the girls. The one I was sitting closest to was 14 yr old named Petya who somewhat resembles my half-sister, between broken bits of everyone's second languages I tried to tell her that (leaving out the 'half' part as unneeded and confusing). The girls started circulating around asking us to autograph their arms. Finally a few found pieces of paper to use also.

Then we had to go, a third village was awaiting us.