Pernik festival a la Mardi Gras

Tom, Rachel, and I set out on Friday for the Surva Festival in Pernik, which is about 30 miles southeast of Sofia. Rachel was interested in the festival because she researches different folk flutes and their uses. What we read about the festival reminded us of the annual Busójárás festival we went to in Mohacs, Hungary. Much like Mardi Gras, it is a pre-Lenten  carnival celebration where men adorned with freakish, horned wooden masks (busós) parade through town to scare off winter and welcome spring. It has an ancient pagan history. Well, so does the festival in Pernik.


 Here are a picture of the masks in Mohacs and a brief historical summary lifted from Wikipedia if you are interested. Otherwise skip over the italics:

Busó masks (Mohács, February 2006)

According to the most popular legend, during the Ottoman times of the territory, people from Mohács fled the town, and started living in the nearby swamps and woods to avoid Ottoman (Turkish) troops. One night, while they were sitting and talking around the fire, an old Šokac man appeared suddenly from nowhere, and said to them: "Don't be afraid, your lives will soon turn to good and you'll return to your homes. Until that time, prepare for the battle, carve various weapons and scary masks for yourselves, and wait for a stormy night when a masked knight will come to you." He disappeared as suddenly as he arrived. The refugees followed his orders, and some days later, on a stormy night, the knight arrived. He ordered them to put on their masks and go back to Mohács, making as much noise as possible. They followed his lead. The Turks were so frightened by the noise, the masks, and the storm in the night, that they thought demons were attacking them; and they ran away from the town before sunrise.
In the older, less popular story, the busós are scaring away not the Turks but Winter itself.
In any case, the locals have celebrated the Busójárás in early February every year ever since, hosting "guest Busó teams" from neighbouring countries (Croatia and Serbia, local Šokci Croats and Slovenia) and also from Poland.


The Surva festival is held over the whole weekend, and the event that most interested us was the night parade masquerade on Friday night. We got there early and milled around the town centre promenade where numerous wooden booths sold various traditional foodstuffs and souvenirs. We couldn't tell where the parade route was or anything. We went into cafe for hot chocolate because it was getting cold and we also wanted a WC. Emerging from the cafe into the night air, we saw brightly lit torches to the left. It was thrilling! Fire filled the night sky. Our old Mardi Gras Krewe in San Luis Obispo was called Krewe Flambeaux after the old torch lit night parades in New Orleans. No way could this take place now because of the fire hazard. Well, fire hazard be damned!

The masked paraders stood tall posing with their torches while people took their pictures. There were 50 or 60 of them, all ages, wearing extremely large animal masks. The mask, according to folklore beliefs, protects from the harmful influence of impure powers.  The other remarkable part of their costumes was the heavy belt of bells (like cow bells) that hung down from the low waist like a short grass skirt. The sounds of the bells hanging from the belts of the dancers are said to reinforce the protective properties of the masks.

All of a sudden one started jumping up and down in a particular dance motion, and then all the others followed until an amazing rhythmic sound of unity and celebration reverberated. It was electrifying and surprising because we did not know they did this. The dance of the bells is supposed to evoke a blessing of prosperity, rich harvest, health, and fertility for villagers and their farm animals. The whole atmosphere of the event evokes pagan rituals and a primitive life force.

   

Here is the website if you would like to read more.
 

WWW.SURVA.ORG