Mask and Veil

While carnivals are widespread around the world before Lent, Bulgaria’s Kukeri (кукери) stand out with their scary costumes which look like they have come from an elaborate horror production. An ancient ritual to drive away the evil spirits, the procession of the Kukeri is celebrated either around New Year’s Eve or on Cheesefare Sunday, just before Lent.

The Bulgarian Kukeri are unmistakable thanks to their incredibly creepy masks, the huge bells on their belt and the costumes made of thick animal pelts. A great place to see the variety of costumes is the city of Pernik on the days of the Surva masquerade festival in late January or early February each year.

The book describes how and why Bulgarians have masked. At what time on the agrarian calendar, at what time of the day, who could be masked, what are the representations and images that came from the depths of paleobalcan culture are hidden behind the mask of the kuker or the babguer.

The book clarifies the meanings of the male mask and the female veil, what relationships they have created and why. You will got to know that the folklore ritual calendar is the arrangement of the relationship and the symbolism between heaven and earth and between the man and the woman.