Seasonchallenge - Traditional Holidays

I promised @roxy-cat for this week's #seasonchallenge to tell about some holidays we celebrate in Bulgaria. I would like to share how traditional holidays before Easter were celebrated in the past.

First let me tell you that in Bulgaria, like other Orthodox Christian countries, Easter this year is week after the Catolic. Dates differ, because Orthodox churches use Julian calendar, while Catolics use Gregorian calendar.

So, week before Easter we celebrate St. Lazarus Day and Tzvetnitza (Palm Sunday). I am not digging into the religious aspect of the holidays but rather into the tradition.

St. Lazarus Day (Lazarovden)

Source

This Saturday is St. Lazarus Day. On this day young girls called lazarki were celebrating, as this was the time when they were allowed in public to be courted. From this day on they can flirt with the boys, although our ancestors would use another archaic word instead of flirt. Something like to behave like grown up girls who wanted to become marrried. Yeah, those were the times, when moral was virtue.

Traditionally groups of girls, dressed in their best outfits with wreaths and flowers visited the houses in the village. They were singing and dancing, praising each member of the family. In return they received eggs.fruit and coins. It was believed that the house visited by lazarki shall be prosperous.

After the girls visited the houses they would gather near the river or spring. Each one will drop in the water their wreaths. The girl, whose wrearh is in front of the others will marry first. It was believed that every girl should participate in St. Lazarus celebration, otherwise she will never marry.

Now the girls do not wait for that day to start thinking about marriage. Nonetheless, folklore groups continue to keep that tradition alive. Old generation passed on the younger the songs and dances and rituals. In some places we can see young girls like in the photo above dressed in folkore costumes singing and dancing. They follow the ritual of visiting the houses and wishing the families health and prosperity.

Tzvetnitza (Palm Sunday)

Tzvetnitza is very much beloved holiday, because everybody named after a flower has a name day. This is the day of the flowers. It is always on Sunday before Easter, the next day after St. Lazarus Day.

On that date you will see people queue to enter the churches, even those who are not religious also go there. Everyone is carring bunch of spring flowers and willow twigs. They are left in the church and yet, the priest is giving back consecrated willow twigs. They are put in the front door of the house to keep the evil away.

In some places the young girls will throw their wreaths not on St. Lazarus Day, but on the next and again the one that has her wreath in ftont, will marry first. In other places the girls make wreaths of willow twigs and again they throw them in the river. Some prepare ritual bread.

These are the most colourful and bright holidays in our national calendar.

#Seasonchallenge is created by @roxy-cat and @erikah and we can share our impressions about the current season with images, stories, recipes, poems...