Kravoder for Christmas!

Four of the five of us who trained together returned for Christmas. We spent a day visiting each other's families and friends. Here we are in the Romi church across the river.

The oldest breaking the bread on the head of the youngest before Christmas Eve dinner.

Budni Vecher!

Весела Коледа!!

A few more things...Budnik, concert, and Santa

During the Advanced English group lesson on Wednesday night, we talked about different Christmas traditions in Bulgaria. Besides the fortunes papers, coin in bread, odd number of dishes, and survaknitsi, I thought the tradition of burning a budnik (sort of like a yule log) on Christmas Eve was interesting. Young men bring a log from the forest on Christmas Eve morning. This log will be burnt throughout the night and the way it burns will foretell the coming year.

Thursday, my last day in Chiprovtsi before the holidays, was, super busy. I did some last minute gift-wrapping and baking then went to the school for their holiday concert. The students, 1st-8th grade, sang songs, danced, and acted out short skits. They sang four songs in English, but my favorite part was the dance to the “Walk like an Egyptian” song.

In the afternoon, I headed to the kindergarten to watch the kids there perform and see Dyado Koleda (Grandfather Christmas/Santa Claus) deliver presents. It was neat to watch. The kids were excited like Christmas morning. The gifts Santa brought were from the children’s parents who had bought and wrapped them earlier. Surprisingly, it worked extraordinarily well. I couldn’t help but think what might happen if a parent didn’t or wasn’t able to purchase something, or if the kid was really disappointed by their gift. But, nothing of the sort happened; the kids were thrilled with their gifts and Santa did a great job.

Museum/Survaknitsi

On Wednesday, the Historical Museum hosted a party in its exhibition house. Survaknitsi made by the kindergartens and food from a traditional Bulgarian Christmas Eve (Budne Vecher) dinner were on display. The children and the folk singing group also preformed.

Survaknitsi are a traditional craft made during the winter holiday seasons using a branch cut from a cornel tree. The branch is then decorated with bright threads, bits of cloth, dried fruit, popcorn, dried red peppers, a silver coin, and round pieces of bread. The popcorn and dried fruit symbolize fertility and fruitfulness. The string of red peppers and the silver coin are meant to drive away evil.

According to tradition, young people go from house to house on New Year’s caroling and offering wishes for good health, prosperity, and happiness. They slap the householders on the back with the survaknitsi and are given bread rolls, nuts, sweets and coins in return. The symmetric tying of the branches to form circles symbolizes eternity and the circle of life. The round, donut like bread rolls hung from the circles represent the universe and again symbolize eternity recalling primordial times, when God "kneaded" space and time. I found most of this information here.

Budni Vecher Potluck

On Tuesday, some of the students in my Beginner English class had a Christmas Eve potluck. I brought Christmas cookies. They brought peppers stuffed with beans, several types of philo dough pastries (with pumpkin, walnut, candy[above pic]), traditional bread rolls, sweets, and wine. It was lovely. One of the girls in the class wrote out fortunes for the New Year, such as: you will go on an adventure, you will get a new computer. These were then rolled around tooth picks and placed in the top of the pastries. My fortune was to receive a sandwich… Another tradition included in the celebration was that of hiding a coin in the bread. Sort of like what we do in Louisiana with the baby in the King cakes, but instead of a plastic baby you receive money.

Traditional Budni Vecher food includes: grape leaves stuffed with rice and walnuts, dried fruit, banitsa, bean stuffed peppers, pumpkin, and soda bread. There is always an odd number of dishes served and never any meat or animal products…this potluck was perhaps the only vegan meal I’ve had in Bulgaria.

Budni Vecher Recipe

Dried Peppers stuffed with beans:

Dried red peppers

1 cup cooked beans

1 / 2 cup rice

2 onions

1 tsp paprika

1 tablespoon tomato paste

black pepper

4-5 tbs cooking oil

mint salt

Several cloves of garlic

In heated oil fry the finely chopped onions. Add rice and fry until it turns clear. Add black pepper, paprika, salt, mint, tomato paste, and cooked beans. Add water if needed. Beans should be well mixed, but not runny. Remove from heat and set aside. Soak peppers in warm water until soft. Stuff full with beans using a spoon. Arrange in a baking dish, chop garlic cloves in several large pieces and place between peppers. Pour 2 cups water over peppers and bake them until the rice is soft. This recipe can also be made without rice. Just add more beans and don’t add water at the end.

Kindergarten crafts

On Monday, I went to the kindergarten to help decorate the cinnamon ornaments we started on Friday. We mixed together a bottle of Elmer’s glue, a jar of applesauce, and a big container of cinnamon to form dough; then rolled it flat and cut shapes with cookie forms. After drying over the weekend, we had sturdy ornaments that looked like gingerbread cookies (though, obviously not edible), smelled like cinnamon, and will last a long time. I used a few extra to decorate gift wrap.

And Snow...

Christmas Cookies in Chiprovtsi

Christmas celebrations in Bulgaria were a blur of cookies, banitsa, and more cookies! My last week at site before the holidays (I celebrated Christmas Eve/Day with my host family in Kravoder), began Sunday making Christmas cookies with Tsetska and her children. Mitko and Elitsa are 4 and 6 years old and super ridiculously cute. They thought the different colored frosting, sprinkles, and cut out shapes my mom sent were fantastic. The cookies were smothered beneath tons of sugary frosting and decorations, but they loved them anyways.

Wood Stove=Very Happy

This wood stove makes me so happy.

Especially after teaching an evening English class in an unheated classroom while it's snowing outside.

Christmas Spirit

My counterpart and I decorated a gingerbread house, put up a tree, wrote Christmas cards, and played seasonal music. Then it snowed a little, the mayor plugged in the town tree, and the kindergarten sang. Afterwards, I opened a box from my sister that had a container of homemade Christmas cookies. It was a good day in December.

Carpet Weaving

Chiprovtsi is well known in Bulgaria for it’s carpets. The rich culture and traditions surrounding weaving has great potential for increasing tourism and economic activity in the area. These carpets are significant for more reasons than economic development; they are important part of Bulgaria’s history. The carpets, which are believed to bring good luck and longevity to their owners, are hand woven with different figures and symbols. Each design has its own history and meaning and has been passed down through families and friends. Although abbreviated histories exist online and are quick to translate, I’ve been working on a more comprehensive explanation of the symbols with some women in town using a few old books museum. When I get it to a certain level, I’ll share. In the meantime, with a local weaver, I’ve organized two carpet weaving weekends for other PCVs to visit and learn about the carpets. Last weekend was the first one and tomorrow, the second begins.

VIDEO

I would love to get this uploaded on the municipality’s website, but I still haven’t figured out how to use the interface. In the meantime, here is a video from my town produced a few years ago. It’s short and in English.

Plovdiv

After the project at the Internaht, we traveled to Plovdiv for a Peace Corps training session. It was good to see the other volunteers from my group. It’s been a while since we’ve been together and we won’t have another such gathering until our mid-service session in July.

Plovdiv is a super interesting city and I wish I’d had more time to explore. I spent a morning wandering trying, without success, to find the old Roman amphitheater seen on most postcards. I did find an awesome cake restaurant and

saw some interesting parts of the old town: the 15th century mosque, places where the main pedestrian walking area opens and the true old city appears underneath, and an outdoor theater. Despite overcast and dreary weather, the town center was colorful and pleasant to walk around.

Located near the geographical center of Bulgaria, Plovdiv is Bulgaria’s ‘second city’ and one of Europe’s oldest. It has been inhabited for around 6,000 years. Plovdiv was known by the Thracian name of Eumolpias until it was captured by Philip II of Macedon (Alexander the Great’s dad) in 342 B.C. He renamed the city Philippopolis, which is the source from which its current name is derived.

Re-conquered by the Odrisi Tsar of Thrace after half a century, Plovdiv became the main commercial, cultural, and political center of the Thracian province under Roman rule and became known by the name of Trimontium (City of Three Hills). The main military road through the Balkans, passed through Trimontiun, and the Romans spent much effort building water and sewage systems, theaters, public baths, etc. many of which are still there today. Only a small portion of the ancient ruins have been excavated from under the city, but where they have been, it is impressive. It’s as if you’re looking down into another city, which, I suppose you are, but it’s also back in time.

When the Roman Empire split at the end of the 4th century, Plovdiv, became part of the Eastern Empire and its Byzantine era began. After the migration of the Slavs to the area Plovdiv became known as Pludin, a Slavicised version of the Thracian translation of Philippopolis. Important as a border city in the struggle between Byzantium and the Bulgarian Empire, Pludin changed hands several times before being captured by the Ottomans in 1364. It was liberated in 1878 during the Battle of Philippolis and became the Capital of Eastern Rumelia. In 1885, the region was unified and the city of Plovdiv became part of Bulgaria.