Dreaming of Mummers/Survashkari

Dreaming of Mummers/Survashkari

Iglika Mishkova

There is hardly another custom, people from many places in Bulgaria are

so excited about and the most excited participants often see in their dreams.

The memory of the days when people change their faces by wearing masks in

front of their faces, is a source of excitement for them throughout the year,

makes them transcend to other places and other dimensions and feel alive and

significant.

We will present to you the masquerade in two Bulgarian villages –

Sushitsa and Banishte, as we saw it during our field studies over the past years.

The men who lead the groups – or are still in their lead – told us most often in

their testimonials that regardless what time of the year it was, when the time

for the masquerade came, their dreams were always the same – that they were

wearing masks and that they were dancing…. And that nothing else mattered….

We chose these villages due to one single reason – they represent the

two main variations of the masquerade customs in Bulgaria. The masquerade in

the villages around Pernik takes place on 14 January, when the New Year is

celebrated according to the old calendar; and in the Sub-Balkan area –in

Karlovo, the masquerade dances are danced during the Sirna week (Shrovetide)

culminating on the Shrove Sunday, which is called there the Mummers

(Starchovska) week. In both regions interesting tales were told about the sky

and the land which merged, about the souls of the dead that roam the world of

the living. And when that happened, the time had come for the people to take

things in their own hands and to protect the villages, the gardens, the houses

and their inhabitants from all evil forces and chase them away, as well as do

their conjurations for health and fertility. And in order to do so, they put on

their special costumes and masks in front of their faces, hung large bells on

their belts and made their ritual conjuration for better. Once upon a time this

was the main purpose but later on it became inseparable part of their rituals,

made them feel different and proud of that, gave them new self confidence

and empowered them to survive in times of change and difficulties. Today

dressing up and wearing masks is a chance for them to feel different, unique,

make the others focus on their villages and attract the attention of the other

people from the rest of the country.

In Sushitsa one can really see an entire carnival week. In this paper I will

often refer to the first mention of the masquerade in the village, dated 1900, as

well as to previous field studies from the region and my discourse will be lined

with quotes from the interviews with locals during our filed studies in the

village. The name of the village has its history. Once upon a time, before the

liberation, and in the first years after that, the village was called Arapovo. The

masked people from the village of Arapovo were first noticed by Dimitar

Marinov, the founder of the People’s Ethnographic museum. After the coup

d’état in 1934 (of 19th May), the villages that had Turkish names were given

new ones. So Arapovo became Chernichane. And the new Socialist power

changed the name of the village to Sushitsa in 1945. In 1974 the village became

a suburb of the town of Karlovo, which did not change its profile very much.

The majority of the inhabitants of the village today (1,226 people) make their

living from their jobs in Karlovo, from growing rose plants and from keeping

small herds of animals. Many are registered agricultural producers; others are

still employed by the military division based in Karlovo. Dozens have tried to

make it abroad and, like the other economic emigrants from the country have

made some money and use it for building a home in the village where they

were born or refurbishing the house they have inherited.

Nowadays the old large herds, which provided the bells for the

Shrovetide, have long gone. Most cow- and sheep-bells have become a family

treasure and are passed from generation to generation as inheritance from the

ancestors. Other members of the group are still looking for bell makers to make

the bells that the others can recognize them by when their faces are covered by

the masks.

Here the masquerade day is called Mummers’ Day. And the people

wearing masks are called “Mummers”. There is no other village in the country

where the locals have their masquerade so well documented with photographs

and show them with such pride like in Sushitsa. It seems like each person from

the village was tasked with taking photographs and keep these images as a big

treasure. Every family has been keeping the photos of the “Mummers” ever

since 1941 and the pictures can tell the story of the carnival. In many houses

these pictures are hanging framed on the walls next to the family trees and the

photographs of their grandparents. Inspired by the masquerade, the locals

make woodcarvings, copper sculptures of people wearing masks. Upon our

arrival every family would ask us to enter their home, they took out the old

attire of their great-grand parents from the wardrobes, they showed items

bearing inscriptions from the early XIX century and the names of today’s

villagers’ ancestors. They were taking out the items that became the symbol of

the families, and after what they told us in these ‘family’ museums we could

start talking about the topic, which brought us here – the carnival week.

The locals tell us that they have two festivals which make up their visiting

card - Bathing of the Brides on Jordan’s Day and Mummers’ Week. Probably

many would find the reference to a whole week quite pretentious, but it

turned out to be exactly the case. Shortly after the Christmas season the locals

start their active preparation for that week. The people from Sushitsa tell the

legend of a rebel (haidutin1) – Chieftain Vidul, who came from their village. His

group was surrounded by Turkish troops but when dusk came the haiduts put

on the masks on their faces, hung bells on their belts and held beacons made of

poles and hemp soaked in tar and went out of the dark forest. The troops

thought they were sheytans (devils) carrying long forks and breathing fire. The

troops ran away and the haiduts survived. So the masks saved their lives.

The photographs of the people “during the carnival week” in the period

1941-1943 (as seen on the dates on the back of the pictures) show handsome

and proud people wearing Mummers’ costumes and caps on their heads –

“according to the fashion then, because after taking the mask down after the

rituals they put their cap on.” The masquerade had conquered the minds of

the villagers of Chernichane up until 1945 when the so called “people’s power”

changed the name of the village and banned the festival. When they went back

to that time in their memories, the people we interviewed stressed that even in

the darkest years of the Ottoman Empire people were allowed to go to the

fields around the village “to ring the bells”. Dressed up groups were not

allowed to go out in the streets and sadness fell over the villagers. Every now

1 Haidutin-

and then they took out the bells from the attics of their houses and rang them

in their gardens as a memory of the festival. After the State Dancing and

Singing Ensemble was established by Philip Kutev, and he studied the region in

the 1960-ies, there were smiles shining on the faces of the locals again. Their

costumes and masks were taken out of the old chests and the dust beaten off

them and the bells were ordered and cleaned to shine. And when festivals of

masquerade dancing started to be organized – like the Pernik one, as well and

folklore festivals and various field days and games, the Mummers’ Group from

Sushitsa came always to the fore. „During a Field Day they took us to the

Opera House in Sofia and asked us to go on a stage that was turning around -

all the time we were afraid of falling down. We could not think of anything

else.”

When performing on various stages, the locals kept their masks and

costumes. „The mask stays always the same, we call it „kyuliaff””, people

told us. It is one of the most conservative elements of the masquerade attire of

the Mummers from Sushitsa. „They make a “kachul” (mask) from fabric, which

is pointed at the top kuzhel2-like and is one arshin (28 inches) long, and ends

with a bit of fur. There are holes cut in the kachul for the eyes and the mouth,

which (holes) are drawn around with various broadcloths and dashes. The eye

brows are also decorated. Beneath, instead of a beard they sow a piece of goat

or sheep skin. The chul so prepared is stuffed with rye hey (ruzhenitsa)” The

„Mummers” place over their heads a mask made from white fabric, cone

shaped with openings for the eyes and the mouth, that are rimmed with pieces

of motley cloth and glittery sequins, ending with a black thistle.

Two groups dress up – the one of the “Belogashti”(whitey pants) and the

one of the “ Badzhatsi” (thighs). The Badzhatsi masks stand up like a cone, and

the ones of the Belogashti have no lining on the inside and fall freely

backwards. As the mask of the Badzhatsi is high, it has more concentrated

decoration. The interpretation of the decoration nowadays is interesting and

relates to the interpretation of the tricolor from Socialist times. The white color

of the mask symbolizes peace; red, on the rim around the eyes on the mask, –

blood and green – nature. The mask is defined by the locals as a religious

2 Kuzhel – cone, cone-like top(dial.).

affiliation marker. The masks documented during a field study by museum

experts in the early 1940-ies, are decorated in two ways – pictures – the two

masks from the art archives – with a „cross” ( a cross, positioned at an angle

of 45 degrees), symbolizing the Sun or with a stylized human figure. However,

the current participants in the group claim that this particular element is used

to distinguish them from the Mummers in the other villages in the region (as

there are villages with many people of Islamic faith relatively close to Sushitsa),

and, on the other hand, demonstrate their affiliation to the Christian religion. It

is strange why such a comparison is made given the fact that there is no

masquerade in the near-by Muslim villages. It is obvious, however, that during

the Mummer’s Week they identify themselves as Christians and in doing so

they differentiate themselves from the neighboring Muslims. To our questions

about the reaction of the church and the priests in the village they responded

that there had not been a full time priest in the village in recent years and that

whoever believes in God goes to church when they feel so and that had

nothing to do with the masks and Mummers’ Week whatsoever. According to

the locals today, the old symbol of the mountain – the cone-shaped decoration

on the masks, resembles the gonfalons – the church banners. So in their tales

the masks are depicted as a symbol that distinguishes them from the rest of the

people and demonstrates their affiliation to Orthodoxy.

Many of the masks are passed down as inheritance, however, these days

the number of the willing to wear masks is growing and there is a need to make

new ones. Some of the former masked people, who have no descendants, keep

their masks in the wardrobes and take pride in showing them to their visitors.

Even the youngest among the inhabitants of the village wear masks on their

faces.

The old mask makers were the wives, the beloved, the mothers and the

grandmothers. They would sow on the masks laces they had knitted

themselves, fur for a beard, and sometimes a red hot chili pepper for a nose.

The mask has a beard and mustache from goat or sheep skin, from the edge of

a calf tail, because “ with a beard and mustache the actual figure becomes

more masculine.”

The oldest villagers who remembered the carnival week told us about

the times when they were part of the masquerade company of the village. „I

have played a Mummer ever since I was a little boy. We used to go out with

the sheep and collect the bells – only the people with the herds used to have

them, not like now – everyone can buy them – a whole bunch of them. Each of

us had them separately. Once we had collected them we used to ring them, as

early as the New Year, even without wearing a mask. I played a belogasht.

Before that we used to be “plashilka” (scary dancers). Back then only the boys

used to dance. Married men danced a little. How old was I when I was out

with the sheep – 12 to 15, 20 years old at the most…” The symbols of the

masks have long been changed, their previous meaning – forgotten, the only

difference between the masks then and now the older people found in the

reason why the masks stand up like a big cone high up. Today’s masks are lined

with cardboard, sewn up like a cone, and the old ones were filled with

ruzhenitsa (hey). It is how they explain why they didn’t take down the masks

throughout the entire ritual and why when they were going around the houses

the hosts poured wine and rakia un their mouth with a funnel. No one

mentions that if the mask is taken down, it loses its powers, but everyone

claims that the mask, filled with hey was difficult to take down at every visit to

a home. After the end of the ritual everybody gathered in order to dance the

Mummers ring dance horo3, and then they took off their masks and threw the

hey they were stuffed with in the fire, lit in the main square. Some of the older

people explain that with the connection between the burning hey and the

swarming of the bees. Searching for ancient symbolism, one could generalize

this act as male and female merging together.

One of the respondents – Dimiter Angelov, who had been leading the

group for years and taking care of its organization, is now an old men, and

despite of his proud and dignified carriage is not capable of dancing any longer.

He has two daughters who live far away and are not excited about the magic of

the masks and the bells. This is why he has given his Badzhatsi (thighs) to his

nephew. Still, he can’t part with the bells, which are his pride and stand out

with their specific sound. „The bells are from my Granddad. They are more

than 100 years old. He was a railwayman and bought them from a famous

Greek master. They don’t make them like this anymore. Today they are

thinner and lighter”. Their sound is something most people in the village

3 Horo – a Bulgarian folklore dance in a ring – closed or open.

recognize, even one of the ladies tells the story about her grandfather who

used to say „This „Mummer”is from the Denkov’s, one of his bells is a bit

tattered but such a fine tune is nowhere else to find”. Despite his age, without

any invitation, Dimiter put the bells around his waist and started dancing for us,

explaining what the steps were of the Badzhatsi (thighs) and what ob the

Belogashti (whitey pants). The former leader was the best dancer, but also the

most boisterous and healthy young man. „When admitting someone to the

group no one was allowed in who couldn’t dance. I am a third generation

dancer – my granddad was and my dad too. … Because this is an official

Mummer – you must follow the beat and the steps. First you dance as a

“plashilka” (scary dancer). And when you become more stable, confident and

learn everything, then you are admitted to it. There was no other way. The

entire group assessed you. And most of all the leader of the group. My dad

was the leader of the “Badzhatsi” (thighs). And when he grew old and lost his

strength, he handed over to me. In the early 1950-ies they didn’t allow us to

dress up and we didn’t – we wanted to stay out of trouble. We didn’t dance.

We were afraid. Then after that we started restoring it but it was hard to get

the bells. The herds then didn’t have any we had to go around the villages

looking for bells”.

Notably every respondent used the adjective “official” Mummer. This

indicates a hierarchy among the Mummers. Each one can dance as a plashilka

(scary dancer) but when it comes to “Mummer” one needs specific knowledge

and skill – about the dance, about the ritual, i.e. it reveals the hierarchy in the

group. „There are some Mummers, who dress up just for the laugh of it. Their

attire is simpler and consists of shaggy old bags (to go on their head), tatty old

sieves decorated with chicken heads and feathers or red peppers (paprika) and

instead of bells they use bottle gourds, cabbages etc.”

Like in the olden days, today the groups gather in the various quarters of

the village. As a rule, in the past the older ones danced Badzhatsi and the

younger ones – Belogashti. Each group had their own dance with each group

having a leader and a joint leader of all groups. „The steps are different – the

dance of the Belogashti is more free style. And the others have their legs all

tied up, the goats skin weighs more, this is why their step is heavier, slower

and dignified”.The famous Bulgarian ethnographer, Hristo Vakarelski also

wrote about the dressed-up dances in the area around Karlovo in his work

“Ethnography of Bulgaria”, 1977. Vakarelski referred to these dances as ‘a true

dramatic performance’ where he defined all the participants in the carnival as

‘actors’, ‘imitators’, be it a human, a puppet, a plant or an animal: “The chaotic

jumping and ringing the bells evolves into orderly rhythmic walking, reminiscent

of the beginnings of the ballet dancing. The association with a stage

performance results from the smart costumes and masks that make up a

beautiful uniformity of hairy pants, motley vests and white shirt sleeves.”

And as we were following the history of the masquerade in that village based

on the testimonials of the people and the old pictures we noticed that there

were some ladies on the pictures from the 1960-ies who were proudly posing

with the group. When we asked since when have the women been dressing up,

they told us: „There were no women back then. And later on, when the field

days started and the folklore festivals, they also started dressing up, but a

little. And after the 60-ies, it was actually closer to 1970, they were only girls,

then they married other Mummers and the two that started... And now we

have many girls and women…. They all dance… But back then – out of the

question! No woman had ever participated at all!” A lady respondent told us

with sadness and pride: „Back then girls were not allowed to dance, and I

wanted to dance so much, that I encouraged both my sons to dance now. My

dad didn’t let me dance.”

There is a lady in the village who the other ladies ask about Mummer dancing,

she is somewhat a veteran, Dimitrina Petkova. „I have been dancing ever since

I was 10. I am one of the Mummers. I can’t say that my grandfather was the

founder, because before them his predecessors danced, however, after the

ban he initiated the restoration of everything – with the thighs and bells …

And this is how it goes, following the tradition. Before me my grandma and

my Mum, my aunt too, God rest their souls, were captivated but they only

dressed up as scary dancers. I have been doing it since 1970. And even prior to

that, but not officially. Saturday night to Sunday people danced as Mummers.

We used to go to Kostov Kamak, a fire was lit there and we used to dance

around it; then we started going around the houses – for wishing wealth and

fertility. When we went to a house people were very happy and everybody

was asking us to go visit them.

We used to not take down the kyuliaff (mask) for a whole week – Monday,

Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. In the old days there were 12 to 15 diusens (a

set of bells, i.e. octave – ordered according to their sound), inherited from

great-grandfathers. Our bells are from the olden times. Their quality is good,

their sound. And I will not forget – when the time came – may be a month

ahead of it, we used to go up to the grove. Grandpa used to say: “The rust

must come off the bells.” Now we paint them with bronze paint. But back

then we used to polish them with a piece of woolen cloth. We only took the

bells up to the grove. We did not dress up. We had something like a warm up

there. And I will not forget – Grandpa had a special stick - I haven’t seen it

since and it is a pity I have not inherited it. He used to do like this; “Ha, this is

thinner”. And used to hit the bells here and there. He knew that there were 15

people dancing but one of the bells – Mityo’s bell – was not OK, it was

cracked.”

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday of the Shrove week the people from

the village rush to get home from work fast in order to dress up and start their

rounds in the village. Each person is free to unleash their imagination and join

in the group of the plashilki (the scary dancers). ”There are some Mummers,

who dress up just for the laugh of it. Their attire is simpler and consists of

shaggy old bags (to go on their head), tatty old sieves decorated with chicken

heads and feathers or red peppers (paprika) and instead of bells they use bottle

gourds, cabbages etc.” All of them roam the village from dusk till 2-3 o’clock

the next day. Unlike the olden days’ scary dancers plashilki nowadays people

put on their heads masks, characteristic for other regions of the country, often

made in modern factories and reminiscent of the West European and US

version of a Halloween party. Almost all villagers – young and old, dress up and

go around the village in laud groups. And in the night of Saturday to Sunday,

the real Mummers go out with the others for a round in the village. There are

two groups of masked people – Badzhatsi (thighs) and Belogashti (whitey

pants). „And this is how they dress up: first, each participant puts on a pair of

pants on the cloths he is wearing; the pants are made from goat skin and on

the pants he puts on a soukman4; on the soukman they bind the bells and

finally they put a kachul on his head. Most of the guys who put on bells around

4 Sukman -pinafore

their waist wear a shirt and white pants instead of a soukman and goat skin,

but if one wants to have cow bells on, they must wear a soukman and goat

skin.”

The„Badzhatsi” (thighs) got their name from the trousers they wear – made of

two goat skins with long hair. There is no change in their original look. In the

case of the older Badzhatsi one leg is made from white and the other – from

black skin. Today they make them from one color skin, because a special long

hair skin is needed from a kich, a castrated billy-goat, it has long hair and does

not smell. The Belogashti dress in white shirts and trousers, they have leather

belts on with motley tassels made of wool hanging on them and called diusens,

as well as a bell or two. On their shoulders they put a white scarf decorated

with tiny spangles that is folded in a triangular shape with the edges hanging

down. On that scarf, a towel is worn called azov posh. „ They used to dance in

handmade skin tsarvuls. Then after the thing got modernized, they started

using rubber tsarvuls. However, when we went to Pernik, or to other contests

of that kind, we had to be uniform – the tsarvuls had to be the same, the

scarfs, the azov-poshes had to be bought (factory made) red cotton square

scarves with white and yellow feathers – a pattern with flowers on each of

the four corners. The edges of the azov posh were trimmed with little red

lace, on which white tiny beads were sewn, as well as tempes (little liturki).

The azov posh is folded diagonally and the edges are tied (-they are a red

towel with peacocks, that’s what they call them)…….

It was something like a girls’ head scarf, because it was bright, colourful and

pretty. But men used it for the Mummers’ festivals. And then underneath

there was a white scarf, covered with beads. It was a head scarf of a girl, of a

woman. A badzhak wears a sukman on top, a lady’s piece of clothing made

from rough wool. It was the warmest piece of clothing a woman could wear

in winter. It could be bent and turned up here in order to be like a short

skirt....”

The Belogashtis have bells, and Badzhatsis – hlopki, they sound different and

when rung in a different rhythm, a melody comes out.

The Badzhatsis ring the two hlopkis tied in front of their belt with their hands,

and the Belogashtis – by jumping up and down.

In the night to Quadragesima Sunday the Belogashtis and the

Badzhatsis, together with the scary dancers dance around the entire village.

They get back home in order to have a couple of hours sleep and then go out to

start their procession. On the day of Quadragesima Sunday everyone who was

born in the village gets back to their home. “Almost everyone comes back

home on this day, even the ones who live in America do.”, a respondent

announced proudly. In the morning, only the Mummers, without the scary

dancers leave their homes, the groups gather in the crossroads and the rounds

start to people’s houses. In their memories the oldest people have it that the

masked ones gathered before the crack of dawn in several places outside the

village and then met in the crossroads, and the large group of Belogashtis and

Badzhatsis started the procession. They usually started from the house furthest

way (the boundary point between the used space where people live, and the

foreign space where is chaos) and ended on the main square. The movement of

the groups usually was west-east orientated along the road between the

homes of the people. From the street the masked people entered the gardens

and perform their rituals in front of the house (ringing the bells and dancing).

They called at everyone’s, except in the homes where a person had died

recently. There was no greater honour than masked people to enter your

home. Each host would offer them a copper cauldron full of wine, the ladies of

the house would bring out in the garden cheese pastry called banitsa, feta

cheese, fruit, or whatever they had and could afford. And each masked person

received – as in the olden days- small sweets and treats. „I had waited for

Grandpa to come home and take off his sukman in order to shake off some

small chocolate bars and sweets.”, one of the ladies told us, the 70-year old

Dimitrina.

Today’s Mummers also call at people’s houses but the culmination of

the festival is the dancing in the main square. “The entire population is

gathered – from around the block, the municipality, everyone is back. People

dance in the main square, different figures – once with the masks on, then with

the masks off – then they take pictures and…. that’s that. And then the fun

starts, a horo ring dance for everyone....”

Curious is also the fact that the Sushitsa group has a twinned group from Simitli

and they even helped them to restore the masquerade. The group participates

on a regular basis in several festivals – in Pernik, in Razlog and in Shiroka Luka.

The Mummers walk rhythmically – something between walking and the

first steps of horo dance. When the entire group of Belogashti and Badzhatsi

line up a community is established – of worriers, of heroes. The masked ones

usually say nothing; only their leader blesses, glorifies or simply issues orders

every now and then. The masked people remain silent, but they ring the bells,

jump up and dance horo called ‘starchovskata’ – i.e. it is only allowed to be

danced on this particular day – Starchovden. Ringing the bells is according to a

special rhythm wishing well for fertility. They say nothing in order not to be

recognized by the others when they hear their voice.

Nowadays in Sushitsa the main actors are the Badzhatsis and the

Belogashtis. Once upon a time together with the, another ritual was performed

in addition- The Camel. Two long pieces of wood – around 28 inches long – got

hammered together in the form of pliers in order to be able to move. These

two pieces of wood were stuck in donkey’s skin with the head still on and a

longer stick was used a camel’s body and was covered with a long carpet. All

this was put on the heads of three people and the ‘camel’ was ready to go.

Then the camel was tied with a chain around the neck and a man from the

village – his face covered in soot and his trouser legs up – took it for a walk

around the village. He walked together with the Mummers. The cameleer

collected flower from the houses and the flower was sold to poor people in the

village at a very low price afterwards. With the money collected the

participants in this funny masquerade had a drink. Often the camel would open

its mouth (the pliers) and pinch the hat of one of the spectators or a loaf of

bread from the stalls of the merchants, this made people laugh. The audience

was amused also when the camel was dancing backwards into the crowd.

Nowadays this character is no longer there in the Mummers Company.

Only the memories of it remain. And in recent years there are two new

characters that have become emblematic for the Sub-Balkan region -

Borimechkata5(the Bear-wrestler), and Rayna Knyaginya (Princess Rayna)6.

Borimechkata has a hard time pulling the cherry tree cannon, making “scary”

shots and a priest is walking in front of him and sprays all the spectators with

water. The villagers can’t give a precise year when this new character appeared

but most likely it was in the late 1960-ies and the early 1970-ies when the

festival is restored and some of the masked groups start taking part in different

festivals and parades. On the day of Shrove Sunday between 90 and 120

masked people go out as Belogashti and Badzhatsi. When the Starchovska

company goes to one of the festivals in the country it follows strictly the rules

of the event – and depending on the rules they determine the number of the

participants to travel there.

After the dance of the masked, with specific choreography nowadays –

shapes are formed like hearts and rings and this innovation was introduced by

the head of the Chitalishte (village hall)in the late 1970-ies. A fire is lit and the

Starchovsko Horo is danced. In recent years the locals avoid lighting a fire

because after the rounds the masked are quite tipsy and there is a risk of

accidents. „we avoid the fire. In the past they did it in the evening. But there

were some accidents. People get drunk and start a fight. … We try to finish at

5-6 p.m. because it is no secret that when they dance and drink there might

be some more boisterous people...”

I would like to end my story about Sushitsa with some quotes from participants

in the masquerade, indicative of their feelings when dressing up like

“mummers”: „it is inborn in the person, no one can make me do it, not that it

is inherited, not that my father had danced, not that my uncle had danced,

not that my other uncle had danced – he is probably the oldest one who has

danced – he was a “mummer.”.

5 Borimechkata – a character from ‘Under the Yoke’ novel based on the April Uprising of 1876, epitomizing the

self-sacrifice of the Bulgarians in their struggle against the Ottoman foreign rule.

6 Rayna Knyaginya – participant in the April Uprising of 1876 from Panagyurishte. Her character became a

symbol of the awakening and emancipation of the Bulgarian women in the Bulgarian Revival period and during

the fight for liberation.

„It is in the heart. Like the son and the dances. I stopped dancing when Mum

died. But after that, until this day, we gather in the street and put on just the

bells. We have a drink and we dance. It is in your heart, in your soul.”

„Most of all in my life I have dreamed of Mummers. And it could be in the

summer – I dream that I am wearing a mask, that I am looking at Mummers,

or that we are dancing somewhere, or that I hear the sound – of cow or sheep

bells. And there is always something to say about the Mummers.”

I am Dreaming of Survashkari

We set off to the village of Banichari for our field study on 13.01.2011.

This was a day when it was particularly hard to get to your destination in a

more distant place if you hadn’t left Sofia very early in the morning. The roads

were covered in snow and Surva was celebrated in all the villages around the

town of Pernik. The Pernik villages change completely on the day of

Survashkari. On the rest of the days of the year one can see mainly locals here

– old people who have never left the village, others who have just retired from

their jobs and left the big cities where they made their living and raised their

children and the time has come to return to their birthplace. It seemed like all

the winds were blowing towards the villages and had brought many people and

the atmosphere of the quiet sleepy village was completely different. One could

hear bells everywhere, one could see many people fussing and running around

in different directions. The faces of the locals were enlightened cars with

relatives from near and far kept arriving, journalists turned up, photographers,

and, of course, …. or humble group, the entire crew , captivated by the

masquerade and going around places to document its manifestations. There

was no village we went through that was not busy preparing for the event,

there was no village where there was no pile of wood in the main square

waiting for the spark to become a big fire. So, as we were peeping out of the

car windows with curiosity and ready for action with the entire equipment, we

were stopped by a police officer with a baton as early as in the village of Elov

Dol. Well, that law enforcement officer was far from real, but it only took a

wave with his baton and we were surrounded by people dressed up in different

costumes, who requested us to pay in order to go on our way. And when they

recognized us they said that we were “taken in their custody” and we had to

stay in order to see the masked people in their village, Elov Dol, otherwise we

would hurt the feelings of the entire village. Our explanations about the

appointments we had in Banishte were perceived as a “bloody offence” and we

were left with no choice but to stay and show our respect to their celebration.

As soon as we got off the car, we heard the characteristic sounds from the

upper end of the village – the Survashkari Company was on its way. The

Biuliukbashi was in the lead, dressed up in rival’s uniform, organizing the group

waving a sword in his hand and blowing whistle in his mouth. He was followed

by a row of people dressed in clothes that had red, white and green pieces of

cloth sewn on ordered like the national tri-color, with tall weird masks on their

heads and with sheep bells hanging on their belts. They had a specific walk, like

in a dance, every now and then they were jumping up in a swift pace and the

bells joined in the syncope melody. They reached the main square of the

village, made a circle around the wood for the fire and went on dancing.

Wormed from the dance and from carrying the heavy bells and masks, they

took off the masks and lined them along the fire. Then all of them started

posing for pictures with family and friends, cameras were flashing everywhere.

Ahead of the other dressed up characters was an interesting one – an old man

with a ladies apron who was wearing a decorated big hat something like a

sombrero and a ladies umbrella over his head. It turned out that it was the old

member of the group –Ermencho Manolkov, (83), whose age did not allow him

to be part of the Survashkari company, but whose heart did not let him just

stand and watch the others without participating in the masquerade for real.

And before we started asking the resting Survakari we attacked grandpa

Ermencho with our questions. As he started his story, we heard yet again:

“When the time comes, after Christmas has gone, I start having this dream. A

lik7, I dream I get dressed and set off dancing …. Be it here in the village or in

Pernik for the festival …”, „I have been dancing Survashkar for more than 70

years now, ever since I started school, from the first grade. And I am older than

80 now. It is hard, but I won’t give up. I can dress up even when I am 101 years

old.”

7 Lik – the name of the mask in the region of Pernik.

He told us about the attempts of the Socialist regime to stop the dancing

in the village and move it on the New Year’s Day on January 1st, when it was

Bank Holiday and it won’t disturb the working week. And Pernik was a working

class city and if the majority of the workers did not turn up at their working

place it would have been a major problem for the factories. The villagers

danced on New Year’s day, but that did not prevent them from doing their

dancing on their holiday - 13/14 January too. And the authorities gave up. And

as he said “They forbid it and we did not concede, the Militia was tel ling us off

for fighting, the priest was very jealous when somebody else dressed up as a

priest, and now one of my grandsons is a ‘priest’”.

Overwhelmed with nostalgia he told us that today’s masked people were

not like the old ones. “Naturally the masks and the costumes are not like the

ones in ‘those days’ but people are also different…” Back in the old days even

little children would wear a ‘Survashkari lik” and the masks were made in each

family. They were worn a long time and no one was to find out who was hiding

behind the lik. And every year they had to make new masks. Sometimes the

masks had two faces – ‘they were more impressive that way – one could not

find out where the person from under the mask was looking from.’By making a

new mask every year, something more attractive could be done because if you

saw something better than yours ‘’it was a legal thing to steal a better idea”.

Another old man from the village told us that today the mask of the “double

man” was forgotten – a dancer who carries another man’s figure on his head

and makes it look like there are two men (one on top of the other) walking in

the street.

The old time Survashkari were dressed in animal skin and rags, but according to

two elderly villagers they would always wear somewhere on their mask part of

a ladies’ belt. Sometimes they would secretly take their mothers’ belt and

ruined them, but a belt was very important to have as ‘the devils and the

hobgoblins were very afraid of the belts because they had broken their teeth in

them in the past (because of the hard threads in them) ”. We came across such

a story for the first time which made us extra vigilant but without any further

analyses we must record it.

The respondent told us about the times when the mask was used for a shield

when the masked people fought and when one was allowed to react to offence

with death. He told us about such a Survashkari cemetery where the people

were buried who were killed during the festival. Some mothers of the more

boisterous men were afraid because more alcohol content in their blood also

meant people could get more militant and react more abruptly. But

immediately he made us smile when he told us that nowadays there is no

fighting in the groups and no fighting with other companies and other vil lages.

“how could one fight today? They are all back in the village to celebrate and

they won’t spoil it by fighting.”On the contrary, the groups exchange visits. His

story was interrupted by another group approaching, the one from the village

of Murene, who had come to visit. The Survashkari from both villages lined up

behind their biuliukbashis who delivered their speeches – greeting and blessing

– then they touched their swords and both groups stood in a circle around the

fire wood to light the fire. The crowd started dancing around it and the sound

of the sheep bells echoed far away. Little children were running around the

Survashkari, some of them were dressed in the same costumes and were

wearing the same masks.

And we went on with our cross fire of questions about the celebrations,

about the changes, that it had seen. Everybody agreed unanimously that the

big change was that ladies could now join in. The ladies, who in the past were

only observing the Survashkaris now wear liks on their heads too. When all the

taboos were abolished for the emancipated ladies, that one went to and ladies

now dress up together with the men. And who could stop them from partaking

in the festival of the village when they helped everyone prepare for that day –

when they are the ones to make the costumes for their men and children alike

in order to be captivated from the magic and the charm of the Surva and make

them return to the village on this day every year. The old men remember how a

long time ago they heard old people tell them that women gathered in a

special place between the river and the forest and they danced and then there

was no wheat harvest in the village. (?!?!?) . Most likely this was the story that

explained the ban for ladies to dress up. And as for them tradition was broken

with women dancing, this memory came to the fore.

Nikola Stavrev, born in 1959, proudly introduced to us his Survakari

family. He was holding his mask with pride and held his three year old grandson

by his hand, who was also dressed as Survakar and was wearing a little mask.

He called his son, daughter-in-law and his daughter to introduce them to us

and told us that his family, counting also his nephews and nieces, had given the

world more than 20 survakaris. He presented the group from Elov Dol as the

group that sets off the earliest on 13 January. The group gathers in one end of

the village and then sets off along the main street towards the center and

dances there, meets the visiting group and then goes around other villages,

then gets back to their home village and go on dancing and the morning after

start their rounds around the houses until late in the afternoon, without taking

off the bells for 24 hours.

According to him they have to call in every house, inside the rooms in

order to chase away every evil, every illness, and this is what “old people know,

but the young welcome us in front of their home because they don’t know” In

the 1960-ies when the group went to other villages and met other “prelicheni”

(masked) people “they would start a fight and it was necessary in order to have

a good harvest, but today this unpleasant element is not there any more.” 8

And after all the questions and all the answers, unnoticed by the locals,

we managed to sneak out and continue our journey. That evening we didn’t

manage to get to the village of Banishte, and we decided to go on with the

rounds in the villages nearby. One of the villages we visited was Leskovets. This

village is well known with its Survakari masks, that can’t be mistaken with any

other masks – they are made of skin on a voluminous wooden or metal frame,

decorated with many horns. There are horns around the holes for the eyes in

the form of eye-brows, and mustaches from horns and small teeth around the

mouth, there are horns in various patterns above the eyes up to the top of the

mask. The masked are dressed in animal skin clothes and carry shepherd’s

sticks decorated with a bunch of boxshrub tied with red thread or a martenitsa

on the top, and sometimes tassels of motley wool around it. There are several

men in the village who make the masks that had become the hallmark of the

village. One of the most respected ones was master Malin. He doesn’t make a

living from making masks – he owns a little grocery store to provide for his

family but in the attic of his old barn he collects horns and skins he uses for

8 Here we have a mixture of memories from olden days and stories of ethnologists, folklorists, as well as

writings of journalists, who ask people to give them a description of the festival. Often today’s explanations

are totally different from the documented field studies from the1940-ies and the 1950-ies.

making masks. He told us that he was in touch with farmers for the skins and

with butchers for the horns. He himself often traveled to the villages in the

Pirin area in order to get good quality material. He was proud to tell us that his

masks were ’the best and no one could mistake them’. He also told us about

the awards the group had won and about the museums all over the world

where his works were exhibited.

The Leskovets group was dancing around the fire as we arrived and one of the

eagerest dancers was a girl – Vera. She had finished school but she could not

stay in the village because even the GSM coverage was poor, there was no

Internet and there was no job for her there. So she made her mind up to move

to the big city, but she came home to Leskovets every year on that day and she

would continue that in the future too. And a cousin (36) of hers told us that

because of his roots he would return to the village on that particular day in the

future too. As he put it: „Everyone in my family has dressed up and I can’t

betray the tradition… And it is already acceptable for women to dress up and

why not indeed, they are the stronger sex.”

From Leskovets we set off to the town of Bratanovtsi, where the festival

was of a more impressive scale – five groups from different villages had

gathered there. Along with the traditional masks and dress of the Survashkaris,

there were funny characters wearing ragged cloths carrying old tin heaters on

their back, which were burning and belching smoke all over the place. With

cunning expressions on their face they threw bunches of red hot Chili peppers

in the fire in the heaters that made the people around them sneeze. There

were many lady dancers, people carrying various slogans, as well as characters

that fit in a different type of masquerade better. So, after many pictures and

records taken we headed towards our beds – quite tired - so that we could

have an early start for our destination – the village of Banishte. It is located

close to the border with Serbia and has a population of ….. who live there on a

permanent basis. In the olden days the village was called Banishor. 9

We arrived in the village of Banishte early in the morning of 14 January. When

we entered the village we found only the fire that was not quite out from the

previous night. The village was quiet and somehow deserted, we could only see

9 Banishor-

smoking chimneys, and the sound of the bells was nowhere to be heard. Some

little children were playing around it. It turned out that the local group was in

the close by village of Ruzhdavets. It came as a surprise and we swiftly set off

for it. The village was named after the ore mines, because of which the water

from some wells nearby was flowing rusty and most of the soil there is red. And

because of the rivers, from which they used to extract gold dust, there was an

idea to rename it to Zlaten Dol (the Golden Gorge) Today its population is 7

people. And as there had been no young people coming back for the

celebration over the past decade, the group from Banishte decided to go there

and make them part of their festival and create some joy for them too. We

caught up with the Banishte group that was just entering the village ready to

start their rounds. The hosts had prepared themselves and were looking

forward to receiving the Survakars. They all had made feta cheese pastry

banitsa, boiled wheat, wine and rakia and the tables were full of food and

drink. The locals gladly told us about their old group of Survashkaris - how the

masked were dressed in sheep skins and how everyone made their own lik,

secretly from the others. So that no-one could recognize who was behind the

mask. Our respondents told us with sorrow about the years when there were

about 400 children in the village, when there was a school, and a big Survakari

company. In their childhood memories their masks were ‘tyutlik’ (small) and

then became about two meters high. The front of the lik was made of wood –

the so called kopanka mask, which was lined with animal skin and decorated

with feathers. Often they put rooster heads on the masks, sometimes even 40

of them. As an old villager from Ruzhdivets put it: “we were better than the

other villages – we had masks made of kovior10 and then we glued feathers on

them, then figures and we measured and drew and then stuck it together with

dough – washed feathers and figures. Each year we made a new mask.”

The old members of the Survashkari group remembered once they met

another group and their Biuliukbashi requested they bowed to his sword and

obey him but they refused and they had a little fight with them. In those days

they were rivals with the Banishte group because one Survashkar from

Banishte stole their best looking maid and married her on Surva.

10 Kovior – material that was used on the walls for decoration and on beds for covers

After the visits to each house, the treats and the presents (rakia, fruit, food and

small change) the Banishte group went back to their village to start Surva there

too.

Today the Survashkari group is not very numerous – it is a working day and

people cannot afford to not go to work. Many of the students can’t come

either. During the festival in Pernik the group is bigger – but then it was

holidays and people take part in the celebrations in their home village. There

was a Biuliukbashi, a priest (the mayor of the village), a bride and a groom, a

bear and Survashkari wearing liks. We follow the group in their rounds in the

village and don’t stop asking our questions to the members of the group and

the villagers.

And now we can try and restore the story of Surva in the village. Once upon a

time the Survashkaris were dressed in costumes made of sheep skins, others –

men suits with rags sewn on them. Today the group wears costumes with thick

tassels of fiber sewn on them. The majority of the masks have a wooden frame

for a base that is placed on the head and the main effort for carrying it falls on

the shoulders. There are feathers arranged in various patterns on the mask. In

the olden days the feathers were taken from poultry – chicken, roosters, geese

and turkeys. Today the majority of the farms grow mainly chicken and roosters

and they are used for the decoration. The youngsters made their masks on

their own and now a couple of people in the village are in charge of that – after

they are made, the masks are kept throughout the entire year in the Chitalishte

(village hall). Some of the mask makers told us that sometimes they for to the

poultry markets to buy feathers or ask people, who had bought birds to

slaughter them for them and then give them the feathers. They had put entire

wings on the mask in the past. But then people made masks every year. And

today’s masks have to be decorated with feathers that are treated in advance

for the purpose of keeping and wearing the mask for a longer period of time. In

Banishte( as well as in the other villages) there were many young people , the

village had about 800 people(according to data from the locals) and everyone

was responsible for their own “prelichavane” (dressing up). The masks were

decorated with corn leafs on the back side. Immediately after the corn was

harvested the locals took off the leafs, cut them in stripes, painted them

different colours and then curled them up with a comb. Then they attached

them on the skin or the fabric, which the wooden frame of the lik was covered

with. They attached chicken feathers, pieces of cloth and the dyed and curled

corn leafs. Sometimes the flower like corn decoration were all over the mask.

According to some sources, they used to attach these corn leafs on the

costumes. Others tell us that Survashkaris’ clothes have always been made

from sheep skin.

One of the boys has a mask approximately 3,50meters high and quite heavy,

but he boasts that this is how he can show his strength. “All girls in Pernik are

after me and like me a lot, because not everyone can carry such a mask, only if

they are strong and healthy like me”.

The group visits the homes of the villagers. They offer them food they made,

they give them food to take, also drinks and money according to the

possibilities of the hosts. They were telling us that some time ago there were

masked as Gypsy kids in the groups who collected lard, flower, meat, wine. The

flower they sold to the poorer people in the village at a symbolic price and the

rest of the groceries the members of the group gathered after the day and had

a good feast. Some years they even had something like a Survakari Convention

and they gave soup to everyone in the village. With the money collected they

bought a stereo and the first TV set for the village hall. Nowadays the group

gathers after the festival and decides collectively how to use the money

collected. Most often they use it towards their travel expenses but when they

find a good cause they easily give up their travels and donate the money for

something more worth-while.

They all have bells that they take care of and keep, and pass down to

their children as a family treasure. In today’s group in Banishte there are also

women. The older housewives we interviewed remembered the years when

they watched the participants in the Surva. The boys made their masks secretly

and no one could recognize who was behind the lik. And when the masked

started their procession they were looking around for future wives and often

flirted with the girls. And the girls’ hearts were also excited because they didn’t

know who the Survakar was who was flirting with them, which was a sign that

he liked them. Some of the masked ones used that night to steal their bride

and “drag her away”. And once they took her to their house she had no way

out and had to become his wife. So this was why they did not take down their

masks whilst they were in the village. In the night of 13 January the group went

to the neighboring villages –Sekirna and Krivonos. As walking with the masks

and the bells was difficult, they would take them down and carry them in their

hands. But when they came closer to a village they always put them on. They

told about instances when some of the Survashkari were recognized by the

viewers of the procession. Then they swapped their masks in order to keep

their identity secret. In the old group of the village of Banishte that was alive

decades ago there was a bear and a bear keeper, an “electricity man” who

collected money from the locals for electricity, a doctor. The bride was always a

young man dressed in the local costume and with a veil on his head. Over the

past years after they finish the rounds the Survashkaris gather in the main

square where the Bride simulates a child birth and from her stomach the

doctor takes out a cat to amuse the spectators. However, this seems borrowed

from other regions in the country.

When doing the rounds in the village the Biuliukbashi11 leads the group.

The more houses they visit and hospitality they enjoy the less disciplined they

become and tend to take their time. Half of the day is over and the group still

goes on their rounds. In the old times some people did not enjoy the masked

and locked the door. The masked did not enter that house. Today the few old

people who live in the village have been preparing for the festival for days –

they have set the tables with various foods and drinks and tell their stories with

readiness as they notice that they are the focus of attention. It is natural that

the memories of one and the same event differ, but time makes people change

even the stories. When they were telling about taking part in one of the early

festivals in Pernik, they started quarreling who was the group that was

disqualified because of their Biuliukbashi – it was a lady – whether it was theirs

or the one from Ruzhdavets. In the olden days mainly young men used to dress

up and after they got married only a few went on dancing “because their wives

wouldn’t let them”. Over the past decades the Survashkari group from

Banishte comprises children, young men, men, who already have their families

and women, only the ones who are in mourning or old or sick do not dress up.

11 The Biuliukbashi is the leader of the group, who everyone expects to have organizational qualities, be a

leader and know the ritual well.

The group from Banishte is a regular participant in the festivals in Pernik,

Yambol, Razlog and Stara Zagora. In the night to 13 January the group never

misses visiting the other villages who they are very good friends with now. The

old rivalries for stolen girls have been forgotten. Today all members of the

groups are the people who are keeping the tradition alive, who travel dozens of

kilometers to return on this day. People with serious illnesses had come back

for Surva in their home village of Banishte because it is one of the symbols of

their identity. One of our acquaintances, an active member of the group from

previous years, had been discharged from hospital recently after a heart attack.

He lives in Pernik. And he told us: “As I was in hospital to have the operation, I

thought I had a dream that I put on my lik and it helps me fly…. And there we

go… all went well and I am here again. I dare not dance but my sons brought

me here to see the other Survashkari. So Surva brings back health and life.”

They are friends and exchange visits with the Koukeri group from the

village of Mogila, Yambol region. And one of the groups in Bansko. When the

group is preparing for festivals it gathers many participants – men, women and

children. Many live in Pernik but all of them a happy to dress up and change

their image in order to show the beauty of the masks and their dance with

them. Pernik is actually a city that is made up by these people – from the

villages and for them the festival is something much larger than a scene where

they can show their dance, for them the festival is pride, passion, excitement

and part of them, a visiting card of an entire region.

This story was initially intended to present only one village from the

region of Pernik. But it describes the atmosphere in many villages in the time

of Surva. The Survakaris from all the villages believe that they are ”some of the

best looking”, that their group “is the best” and that “everyone else is setting

their watch according to them”.

And just like in Sushitsa, here too we often heard people say about this

day:”How can you not dress up when your blood heats up when you hear the

bells and see the group. … This is a thrill that keeps you alive.” „To us the Surva

in the Pernik region is like a National Holiday, there couldn’t be a more

important day.”

„My bells are very old, they are not for sale. As long as I live I won’t sell them

and then my children can do whatever they like. If they don’t have any sense of

sin – let them sell the bells.”

„It is coded in my chip, inborn, how can I not go out on Surva with a lik and

bells? I am alive, aren’t I?”