Bulgarian traditions for New Year

 Yes, I'm interested in the old European cultural traditions which have pagan roots, and certainly are colorful.

The caption on the photos said, "Bulgaria’s New Year tradition is that of the west Bulgarian survakari, bands of masked men who tour the villages over the New Year period (14 January, old calendar) performing ritual “playlets” (mumming), dancing," 

I'm amazed at all these men who wore the costumes in parades and then different rituals...mummers, dancing! And I think of how they were created, with probably some skilled women's fingers as well!

I found these wonderful costumes posted on Facebook last week. Apparently in Bulgaria the New Year was celebrated in the old calendar, after the full 12 days of Christmas.

That last photo with the soldiers looking at the costumed man gave me pause. Bulgaria is in the EU, and NATO, but we don't hear much about it these days. I would imagine that when it was communist until the 1986 Soviet Union's demise, that photo would have been more likely. Unfortunately, none of these photos were dated.

A difference was that in eastern and central Bulgaria, kukeri - wild male masked dancers and mummers - performed their ancient ritual masquerades to drive away evil spirits and bring fertility with plowing themes!

Today's quote:

Whenever books are burned men also in the end are burned.

 -Heinrich Heine, poet, journalist, and essayist (1797-1856)

Happy New Year

  Hope you had a good time last night, ringing in the new year while I cozily snuggled asleep.

Wherever adventures take you this year, I wish you well with abundant health, love, wealth, wisdom and joy!

Clouds by Rankin

Illustration in the Snow Queen by Edmund Dulac

A house right in the center of Black Mountain. Nobody notices it!


Today's quote:

Once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive…But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.

HARUKI MURAKAMI

Re-posting from Interim Arrangements

 Thanks to Sabine, fellow blogger at Interim Arrangements for this post...included here totally, or go to the original HERE.

______________________________

01 January 2023

2023

 

The effort of imagination is to turn the boundary into a horizon. The boundary says, here and no further. The horizon says, welcome.

Barry Lopez

 

Let us lose our cool. Let us think of the billions of people who will come after us and lose our cool.

The apocalypse is the wrong story to tell about climate change. It’s self-serving, exploitative, clickbait rhetoric that paralyzes us with fear and excuses any action. It's so easy to blather on about collapse. Pick up some climate predictions, read them at a moment when you're not feeling well, cobble together some horror news, there's your apocalypse. But really, it's just lazy to put something like that out in the world. You take what you already perceive around you and extrapolate it into the future. That's so convenient because you don't have to change anything. Yes I get it. Looking into the future and not just seeing darkness is not easy. Imagining something new is fucking difficult. But the impulse to act never comes from staying calm. It comes from emotion. From excitement. From hope and from love. There is a great deal of work to do, and as climate change continues there will be even more. 

Remember: small changes are phenomenal. It’s not just about impact, it’s about our soul, about living the best life we can in respect of each other and the life around us. Let's concentrate on that. Let's work for a society that is not based on individualism and competition, but on trust and care, a democracy that is not representative, but direct, an economy based not on extractivism but on cycles.

We have all the tools.

Rather than feel impotent and useless, you must come to terms with the fact that as a human being you are infinitely powerful, and take responsibility for this tremendous power. Even our smallest actions have potential for great change, positively or negatively, and the way in which we all conduct ourselves within the world means something. You are anything but impotent, you are, in fact, exquisitely and frighteningly dynamic, as are we all, and with all respect you have an obligation to stand up and take responsibility for that potential. It is your most ordinary and urgent duty.

Nick Cave 

 

Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

Vaclav Havel