International Mummers Festival “Surva” in Pernik Starts Tonight

The 27th edition of the International Mummers Festival “Surva” in Pernik will be opened tonight, 26^th of January.

Organisers expect the festival to be visited by hundreds of people. Bulgharina Railway company BDZ provided 4,000 additional seats on the train services between Sofia and Pernik. As part of the tradition, about 6,000 people from all ethnographic aeras of Bulgaria and guests from Europe, Asia and Africa take part in the mummers palys.

Mummers (Kukeri in Bulgarian) is a Bulgarian tradition of Thracian origins. In ancient times the old Thracians held the Mummers Play in honour of god Dionysus.

The Mummers plays are performed by men only, dressed in colourful hand-made costumes and wearing scary masks. Each wears a leather belt around the waist with huge copper bells (chanove) attached to it.

The ‘Mummers’ masks are decorated with threads, ribbons, laces and usually represent animals like goats, bulls, rams, or even chicken. Some of the masks are double-faced. On one of the sides, the nose is snubbed and the face is good-humored, on the other side, the nose is hooked and the face is ominous. Those masks symbolize the good and the bad which co-exist in the world.

The decoration colours represent the symbolic meaning of the masks. Red is the most used colour, symbolizing fertility of the reviving nature, the sun and the fire; the black colour represents Mother Earth and white is a symbol of water and light.

Mummers walk around, jump and dance special magic dances to scare away the evil spirits, to celebrate the beginning of spring and hopes for a good harvest, health, land fertility, and happiness.

The event in Pernik is the oldest festival of mummers play in Bulgaria. The first edition was opened on January 16, 1966.