Mummers Festival “Surva” visits Sofia again

More than 200 mummers, mask makers, folk dance ensemble "Horo" at the Municipal Youth House-Pernik from the festival "Surva" are visiting Sofia. A culinary exhibition is also planned, the Sofia Municipality reports on January 5.

The event will take place on 8 January in the Borisova Garden in the capital city. It is held for the second consecutive year.

The mummers parade will start from the "Ariana" lake and will proceed to the specially built outdoor stage. The participants will be from "Kruger Nikolov - 1922" community cultural centre in the village of Peshtera, Zemen municipality, "Hristo Botev - 1928" community cultural centre in the village of Kopanitsa, Radomir municipality, the village of Svetlya, Kovachevtsi municipality, "Probuda - 1935" community cultural centre in the district of "Bela Voda" in Pernik, the village of Sadovik, Breznik municipality and the village of Kosharevo, Breznik municipality.

The international festival of masquerade games "Surva" is held every year in the town of Pernik at the end of January. It is the oldest festival of the masquerade games in Bulgaria and is the largest masquerade forum in the Balkans. The first edition was opened on 16th of January, 1966.

In 2015, "Surva" was listed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Images by BGNES archive

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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, 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.

In different ethnographic regions of Bulgaria men put on masks around New Year, during the twelve days of Christmas (Christmas till Epiphany), on Sirni Zagovezni (Forgiveness Day), and on Todorova Nedelia (the Sunday before the start of the Easter Fast).

The symbolic meaning of the winter and pre-spring rituals is related to the end of the old year, the beginning of the new and to the awakening of nature for new life. These rituals represent the wish for a rich harvest, good health and fertility for humans and farm animals.

The dance of the masked men is a mystic unity of rhythm, sound, and colour. Moving in a special step, 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 sounds of the bells hanging from the belts of the dancers are believed to strengthen the protective properties of the masks.

In the different parts of Bulgaria mummers are called Kukeri, Survakari, Babugeri and Dzhamilari. This ancient custom became even more popular after 1985, when the festival gained international-event status.