Soon after the Christmas and New Years celebrations in Bulgaria, a millennia old tradition shows the country’s Thracian ancient roots in a festive and wild way – the Kukeri Fests.
People around the world associate the Carnival with Venice, Rio De Janeiro and New Orleans. Anthropologists trace the tradition of wearing masks, eating, drinking and being wild to the Roman times, from where the term “Carnival” comes – caro (Lat. for meat) and vale (Lat. for farewell) – farewell to the meat or, accordingly to another theory – carrus navalis - a cart hauling a statue of a god in the annual festivities dedicated to the Greek god Apollo – the god of the Sun and arts. In Christian times, those days of festive meat eating, before Lent, still bear the pagan tradition of preparing for the upcoming spring and the re-birth of life.
History of the Kukeri Festival
In reality, the heritage of these Carnivals come from much older traditions, related to the pagan history in Europe and still preserved in its authentic form in Bulgaria and parts of Northern Greece – what corresponds to Ancient European Thrace. The tradition of representing the lifecycle of conception ¬– birth – death – rebirth, embodied in the Dionysian mysteries, rites and cult celebrations, gave birth to the tragedy theater plays in the Hellenistic world. The mysteries evolved into theater plays for the public in the Greek city-states, leaving a significant body of literary work. In Thrace, following the non-literary Orphic tradition, they have been preserved throughout the centuries in the form of popular festivities under the name of Kukeri.
As for many other cult initiation ceremonies, pagan celebrations and other Orphic traditions, Bulgaria is the country that still preserves most of them until today in almost their original form – as they were created in the second millennia B.C. The essence of the Kukeri festival comes from the pagan believe that the Thracian god Dionysus, twice born through a divine conception, dies and is reborn thanks to sacrificial rites and masked impersonations. There are several elements of the Kukeri masquerades that are common for all villages in Southern Bulgaria, and few characteristics, which are individual accordingly to the geographic micro-region. The festivals take place in the villages around the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, in the South West of the country (Kyustendil, Razlog, etc.), the South East – Yambol and the villages of the Strandja Mountain. Kukeri carnivals were historically recorded in northern Greece up to the beginning of the 20th century, but with the Bulgarian population expelled towards the North after the World War One, they are not part of the traditions in this region anymore.
The Kukeri Day
Kukeri are young men (bachelors, or recently married) dressed in animal skins, with a belt of huge bells, who wear elaborate high headdress masks with horns and animal furs, caring a thyrsus (scepter), wood clubs and swords.
In the beginning of the Kukeri masquerade, or Kukeri Day, they assemble in the center of the village and choose their leader, who will direct the ceremonies throughout the day and will perform the blessings for health, fertility and prosperous New Year. Then the Kuker is dressed ceremoniously in front of the crowd. The Kuker leader is dressed with seven animal skins, symbolizing the force of the animal transmitted to him. He doesn’t wear a headdress ¬– instead his face is blackened with make up, horns are attached directly to his head, and bells are hung from his waist. He also attaches to his belt a big wood phallus, the symbol of masculine fertility. He carries the thyrsus – another emblem of fertility– and a distinctive accessory in the Dionysian iconography. Once dressed, the Kuker starts to jump and clang his bells, this way announcing his symbolic birth.
The tour of the village starts among cheering, music playing and drinking. The entire population of the village is both observer and participant in the festivities. Kukeri visit all houses in the village, and house owners are obliged to let them in, otherwise the Kukeri have the right to enter with force and pillage it. The hostess of the house presents gifts to the Kukeri, who blesses the family. In each house, the Kuker is met with wine (presented by the eldest man of the house) and bread (offered by the hostess of the home). The wine and the bread offerings symbolizes the blood and flesh sacrifice needed to obtain the fertility blessing for the family.
After the Kuker eats from the bread and drinks from the wine, he rolls on the floor, to “rub” his fecundity into the house. Then everybody (the Kuker, his escort and the family of the house) go outside and dance horo (a dance in a round, symbolizing the solar energy), circling the house three times from East to West, following the path of the Sun. In their passage throughout the village, Kukeri perform pantomimes symbolizing sexual intercourse, masculinity showing-off and demonstrations of force and power through faked battles and duels. The Kuker leader strikes the ground with his scepter or the shoulder of the spectators, specially the women in the crowd, to bless them with fertility. After the tour of the homes is finished, everybody gathers in the center of the village for a feast. All gifts of food and wine, collected by the Kuker and his entourage are eaten and the order is restored, after the chaos of the tour.
Once the people are assembled in the center of the village, a replay of the death and rebirth of the Kuker is performed. After the Kuker takes three bites from the bread and three sips from the wine, he is tied onto a plow. The villagers pull the plow and Kuker falls down, as if dead. The women of the village cover him with seeds, and immediately he jumps on his feet and starts to ring his bells, as in the beginning of the Kuker’s day, symbolizing his re-birth.
At the end of the day, the seven animal skins of the Kuker’s leader are buried in seven different wheat fields outside the village, to insure fertile soil and a great harvest. The wood phallus is given the man of a childless family and the thyrsus (scepter) is preserved for the next year in the village bakery to assure the abundance of bread thought-out the year.
Acknowledgment
Enormous thanks to Prof. Valeria Fol who enlightened my knowledge about the Kukeri tradition. Her article «Mask and Masquerade: From Mysterious Intitaion to Carnivals in Bulgaria» and the conversations with her gave me the information I needed.
My cousin, architect Sotir Kamburov was super kind to permit me to use his pictures from the Kukeri festivals in Yambol, South Bulgaria.
My new friend on Flickr.com, Ms. Dessislava Nacheva (Crazy by Nature nick) permitted me to use her Kukeri photo. (The second one, in the middle of the page).
