All
the names in the title of this post signify the same day, January
6th,
which for us Christians is a big holiday. But before I head into the
details as to why that is, let me welcome you back to Culture of
Bulgaria feature, where I will do my best to introduce you to some of
the holiday traditions and beliefs we have accumulated. I intended to
begin with New Year’s Eve oddities during celebration of the
biggest, international holiday, but right now I’ve the perfect
chance to talk about another holiday rooted in Christianity.
I've
been thinking about the purpose of all religious holidays in the
context of Bulgaria's state and I've made some interesting
conclusions, which could be false, but I like to believe that not a
single element of one's culture remains fixed and timeless. Every
ritual changes and there is nothing more evident than the changes to
long lasting religious holidays, which still have their appeal to our
society.
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| The actual baptism of Christ |
As
you might have guessed, religious holidays are all about religion.
Today is St. Jordan’s Day,
though I've
to say that this translation is wrong as the name of the holiday is
taken from the name of the river Jordan,
where Christ has been baptised by John the Baptist. Factually, we're
not honoring a saint as we're
remembering Christ’s baptism, thus making it the third most
important Christian holiday in our calendar. Nevetheless,
people with the names Yordan [Bulgarian spelling and pronunciation of
Jordan], Yordana, Dana, Dancho, Boyan, Bogdan and Bogdana celebrate.
The last three are tied to the aspect of the Epiphany.
The
Epiphany aspect deals
with the part of the script, where the heavens open during Christ's
baptism and the spirit of God appears as a white dove. There is a
voice that recognizes Christ as God's true son. This is the true
religious importance of the holiday, the power of the act and
recognition of the ritual as one sanctioned and approved by God. This
moment is the serves as the basis for the belief that on the night
before
the 6th
of January the sky opens
directly to the heavens above, where God can hear you. Make a wish
and God will grant it to you.
With
the fall of strong religious belief, this aspect has fallen into the
background. You won't talk with your family about watching the sky at
night and the wishes that you made
to God. In a certain sense, Bulgarian society has moved on towards
unspecified belief and reliance on the multitude of superstitions
rather than strict
explanations from the Bible. The best example is the ritual to mark
the holiday.
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| The cross has been caught and then passed on the youngest participant, which this year is a nine year old boy. |
As
with all holy days, Bulgarians have numerous ways to mark the
occasion, the most popular still being the “Throwing of the Cross”,
which is an all male activity. On this day, after church service, the
priest and village [village sounding more authentic] men gather at a
large, natural body of water. Then the priest proceeds to throw the
cross in the cold water. This is the signal for all the men to jump
in and retrieve the cross. The man to retrieve the cross is said to
have a happy and healthy year, because he has been blessed. As St.
Jordan’s is still widely practiced, the “Throwing of the Cross”
is a news-worthy event every year and today was no exception. It’s
here that St. Jordan’s day adopts the [horrendous] Men’s Water
Day title, which official Bulgarian sites dedicated to our culture
has translated it as. Of course every region has its own versions of
how the ritual should go.
During
breakfast and lunch I followed the news channel’s special segments
dedicated to how each city celebrated the holiday, who caught the
cross [in Varna, it’s a peer of mine from my university] where and
also announcing curious
trivia about the holiday. From
what I've seen and read, the news are centering on the act of
catching the cross as the
reason for receiving an astounding health through the whole year.
Less
emphasis is placed on God's role for making all the bodies of water
holy, even though the notion is still present.
Even
so the
importance of
water is great
and
therefore features in all
of the celebrations and rituals. On this day, all natural bodies of
water become sacred and their waters obtain healing properties. Sick
people bathe in the cold waters to wash away illness, churches change
their holy water with fresh one from the closest river or lake for
the coming year and families bottle this holy water and keep it in
their homes to use, when someone falls ill on bed. And
while the churches still follow these
rules, individuals are less inclined to bring healing water to their
ill family member. My grandmother, who is a practicing Christian, has
abandoned this notion as she knows that medicine has covered our
bases, when it comes to illness.
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| The Dancing Chain |
This
leaves me with the third aspect of the holiday,
getting drunk. Before I can proceed with a bit of credibility, I have
to bring you to the city
of Kalofer. The
men dress in old,
traditional,
period clothes to
perform their own version of honoring the day. They
form a chain and dance in the freezing water for well over half an
hour. The
river Tunja explodes in manly laughter and shouts, loud music and
merriment, which more or less is an antiquated equivalent of pool
parties, if I have ever seen one. This brings me to my point. In
order for the men to last in the ice cold waters they have to drink
the night before and some of the participants haven't
slept a wink in order to pass.
Given
how dissatisfied we are as a nation and society with our lot [check
European studies, we rank quite high] it's no surprise that we find
ways to involve alcoholism in our rituals and holidays as a means to
look forward to some fun. What
do you think happens, when Yordan comes home from work? Wine happens.
That's what.
Anyway,
I hope that this was not the 'too long, didn't read' variety of a
post. Tell me what you think? Do you have any interesting traditions,
where you come from, too?
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