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2. Trifon Zarezan
Trifon' Day is a holiday in honour of St.Trifon who is
patron of the winegrowers, tavern-keepers and
gardeners. The master of the house takes a bag that
was prepared early in the morning by the mistress of
the house and togather with the other men of the
village they go to the vineyards. And than cuts three
roots from three different vines and then he pours out
some wine over the cut spots and makes a blessing.

4. Trifon Zarezan
The most popular blessing: "As many drops of wine,
that many grapes in the vine". This ritual is called
"zarejazvane" (cutting).

6. Baba marta
Third day is considered the first day of the spring and
is celebrated with a great joy. A red cloth is hung on
top of the door or under the eaves and stays there
until Mladenci. It is believed that the red color will
make Baba Marta happy and the weather will be nice.
The old women do not go out early because they do
not want to make her angry and break the weather.

8. Baba marta
The martenicas are carried on until the first storks
and swallow come. When you have seem a stork you
can take you martenica off and put it on a blossomed
tree or throw it towards the bird and say: "Take the
ugliness of the winter away, bring forth the beauty of
the spring!" The martenica can also be put under a
rock.

11. Gergiovden
It is a folk holiday in honor of St. George who is the
patron of shepherds and herds. This holiday has a lot
of rituals connected to various spheres of Bulgarian
life. The typical cattle rituals are interwoven with
rituals connected with agriculture, health and
wellbeing. In the spring night before the holiday
lasses and girls gather flowers and herbs from the
fields for the ritual feeding of the sheep and cattle.

15. The Gergjovden sacrifice:
The first born male lamb is chosen for that ritual.
They put a flower on it, a candle is put on the right
horn and it id lit before the slaughtering. In Southern
Bulgaria they slaughter the lamb in the garden under
a fertile tree and they leave the blood to get soaked in
the ground and in Western Bulgaria the slaughtering
is done near a river where the blood runs out into the
water. It is believed that the blood has protecting
powers. They make a blood cross on the children's
forehead to keep the evil eyes away. The whole
Gergjovden lamb is roasted and a green spray is put
on it.

18. Velikden
Easter is celebrated in three successive days. The first
one is always a Sunday when everyone goes to the
official church service. The candle that is carried
throughout the service is should be carried home
while it is still burning. Everybody fight with the
painted eggs by crash them one against the other. The
person whose egg is the strongest will be the
healthiest one during the year. On that holiday
newly-wedded couples go visit their first witnesses
and the parents of the bride. They bring them painted
eggs and Easter breads and receive the same things in
return.

20. Velikden
The second day of the Easter holidays is also called
"razturni (messed up) Monday" and is connected with
the ritual "flourishing of eggs" which is done as a
protection from hails and for fertility. The lads and
the lasses go to a meadow and roll red eggs to each
other.
The greeting "Christ resurrected" is used for 40
days.
The week after Easter is called Tomina nedelq
(Tomas Sunday).

24. Sirni zagovezni
According to the official church canon the period of
the Easter fast continues for seven weeks. Bulgarians
call the first week of the fast "sirnica", "sirni pokladi"
or "proshka" (forgiveness), because the Orthodox
religion allows the consumption of buuter, cheese and
eggs. The consumption of meat stops the previous
week known as Mesni (meat) Zagovezni. The Sirni
Sunday is rich with rituals. Before lunchtime the
newly marreid go visit their first witnesses and elder
relatives - parents, brothers and sisters, friends. They
kiss their hand and ask forgiveness from their
relatives.

26. Sirni zagovezni
"Forgive me!" - that is what the young peole say when they bend
to kiss the hand.
"May God forgive you, you are forgiven!" - the elder bless. In the
evening the whole household gathers around the table, full of
fishmeals, cheese and eggs pasrty, milk and of course white
khalva. The youngest members of the family are eager for start
of the traditional "hamkane" or "lamkane".
 Very important things in the tradition are the putting on of
big bonfires and the jumping over them in which the main
participants are the bachelors and the elder boys. During the
whole "sirna week" they gather branches and corn leaves which
they carry to the high places outside the village. They pile the
branches and the leaves around a high pike and they put the
head of a rooster that has been slaughtered during the Mesni
(meat) Zagovezni on top of the pike.

29. Nestinarstvo
This is a custom that can be seen only in some villages
between Strandzha and the Black Sea, around Bourgas. It
is observed on the holiday of St.Konstantin and Elena ,
and sometimes on some of the local village fairs and the
church/patron saint's days. A basic element of the custom
is the dance in fire ( glowing embers). The whole village
takes part in the celebration but it is only the fire-dancers
that participate in the ritual dance. They are chosen by the
saint who is patron of the holiday. The dancers are able to
"see" his face, to "hear" his voice and his spirit is
transferred in them and on his behalf they can interpret
omens , give advices and scorn people.

32. Kukeri
On New Year's Eve and Zagovezni in Bulgaria special
rituals called Mummer's games take place. The
Mummer's games are performed by men only. They
put on special masks hand-made by each of the
participants.

34. Kukeri
Most of the masks are constructed by wood. Different
colored threads are glued on it as well as pieces of
multicolored fabrics, mirrors and other shiny
elements. The masks representing a ram, a goat or a
bull are considered the strangest. Their necessary part
of the Mummer's games proves the thesis that the
origin of the mummer's games is connected to the
ancient Dionysius' games. The impact that the
masked mummers make gets even bigger by the
sound of the copper and bronze bells that hang on
them

37. Kukeri
 Some of the masks have two faces. On one of the
sides the nose is snub and the face is good-humored
and on the other the nose is hooked and the face is
ominous. Those masks symbolize the good and the
bad which coexist in the world and are inevitable. A
very important thing for the symbolic of the masks is
the color of the decoration. The red is the most used
one - a symbol of the fertility of the reviving nature, of
the sun and the fire; the black color embodies the
earth and her goddess mother and the white is a
symbol of water and light.

40. Kukeri
The mummer's games aim to scary and sweep away
forever the evil spirits and the weird sisters with the
help of the special magic dances and the scary masks,
so that the crops for the next year are rich.