Trifon Zarazen - Bulgarian Wine Harvest Holiday

Last night, I went to the Bulgarian Community Center (Chitalishte) celebration of the wine harvest.  This holiday is known as Trifon Zarazen and is celebrated on February 1st (old calender) or February 14th (new calender).  This holiday is to celebrate the clipping of the grape vines to get ready for the new season.  There was a Bulgarian band, several of the members actually played at our wedding.  Check out the Gaida- the Bulgarian bag pipe.  It's made from a animal hide and has several different wooden pipes, one to blow into and several interchangeable ones to play the notes.  Interestingly, the sound is not forced out by the musician blowing into it- though he blows into it to keep it filled with air.  He actually squeezes it with his forearm to play the notes.  He'll then blow into again to keep it topped up.  He's in the gray sweater, just behind the singer.

The drum is played with a stick about the size of a chopstick and another thicker stick, sort of like a wooden spoon.  Whenever there is National Music (Narodni Musika) and a group of Bulgarians- there is horo dancing!  I can never get a good picture of the horo, but here's an example:

This is Pravo Horo- 3 steps forward, kick your left foot, one step back, kick your right foot, hold hands with your arms slightly raised.  You can see the little ones join in early, don't worry if they don't get the steps, they just walk along. 

Typically, in Bulgaria, this holiday is celebrated with wine, a lot of wine.  But here in the states, there was no drinking at this community center, so there was a quiz where bottles of wine were given out as prizes.  I did not win, though my friend did- one question was a yes/no da ili ne question and she shouted out "no" which turned out to be the correct answer. 

It's so fun to celebrate this Bulgarian holidays here in America.  There are Bulgarian cultural groups in many metro areas, when we lived in Pittsburgh, they even had their own community center- their own building!  Its a great way to keep the connection for our child when he/she comes home.  They have celebrations coming up for St. George's Day and Cyril and Metodi Cyrillic Alphabet Day in May. 

I found this group through a friend who also served in the Peace Corps Bulgaria, but you can find many of these groups via the web.  Some Bulgarian cultural groups have list serves on Yahoo or Google, websites and some you can track down via Eastern Orthodox Churches.  This group had a wide range of people, some who were born here, born in Bulgaria, married a Bulgarian, little children, teenagers, grandmothers.  Everyone spoke English, but they enjoy speaking Bulgarian when they get together because they rarely get to in their daily lives.  People were happy to translate, teach the dance steps and explain what the different foods were. 
It was a lot of fun, and when we came out we were surprised to see our cars had a dusting of snow!  We haven't had much snow at all this year.  It was very pretty, but made the drive home slippery. 

Хайде играите хоро!

Let's dance the horo!  Its impossible to spend more than a week in Bulgaria without trying the horo.  We were there about 3-4 days when our Peace Corps trainers taught us a few basic ones.  Nearly every Bulgarian child takes tanz (dance) and have many opportunities to practice- weddings, birthdays, office parties, or even just a weekend at the pub or disco. 
When you learn horo, you count the steps starting with raz which is the Russian word for one, then you count forward in Bulgarian: dva, tree, cheteri, pet, shest and so on.  The most simple horo is Byala Roza or White Rose, which is 6 steps foward and 2 steps back, similar to Pravo.  Which is demonstrated here:

It's in Bulgarian, but its demonstrated with one dancer and illustrated with arrows.  They show the steps (krakata), which leg goes first and what to do with your arms (rutzete).
Da go videyat Let's watch!
My favorite horo is Dunavsko which is named for the Danube River which forms Bulgaria's Northern border with Romania and empties into the Black Sea.  While Pravo can be danced to a number of songs, Dunavsko is always danced to the same song. 

I am a bit winded, I need to practice before the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival and the Celebration of Peace Corps' 50th anniversary!  We'll be there next week to represent Peace Corps Bulgaria, check it out if you are around Washington, DC.
Smithsonian Folk Life Festival 2011

Bulgarish-American Wedding

This weekend we went to a wedding in the Shenandoah Valley.  The groom is also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) from Bulgaria.  It was great to see old friends, some of whom we hadn't seen since we left.  It was a beautiful setting, the ceremony was in a garden of an old manor house, with the reception under a big tent.
The couple decided to include a few Bulgarian traditions: The bride and groom tore a loaf of bread.  The tradition is the couple is given a whole loaf of bread to tear in half, and the spouse with the larger half is the "boss."  It came as no surprise that the bride walked away with about 3/4 of that loaf.
The other tradition done at all Bulgarian occasions- weddings, school parties, office parties, even in a pub in the evening was to dance the horo.  The horo is any number of dances where everyone holds hands and dances together, similar to the Greek, Hora.  Sounds simple enough, but some of them are really tricky.  Most Bulgarian kids take tanz, dance, in grade school and I had the oppurtunity to take a course while I was there.  Here's one of the easier horos.  Byala Roza or White Rose.  Its usually 6 steps to your left with a foot touch- Bulgarians swear its not a kick, merely touch your foot out, but don't touch the ground.  Then 2 steps back, with a foot touch.  Repeat, repeat, repeat.

I like this youtube series for learning the horo, its in Bulgarian but they demonstrate each step:
Elenino Horo