Bulgaria - Eastern Europe - page 88

Scary Monsters: Freddy Eat Your Heart Out
While the majority of Bulgarians are traditional Orthodox, plenty still
ascribe to more pagan animistic rituals, and nowhere is this more evident
than during the annual kukeri and survakari rites, designed to repel evil
spirits and promote fertility, and still practiced in certain villages and cities
in the southwest with great fervor on New Year (or Jan 14). During a 30-day
period, known as the “dirty days” or “Mrasni Dni,” when the days that
denote the new and old year mingle, it is believed that the gates to both
heaven and hell are temporarily left open, and demons carrying illness and
evil walk the earth. A group of selected villagers or townsfolk, each playing
specific roles, don terrifying masks and girdles sagging with huge bells.
Armed with wooden guns, swords, or axes, they stalk the streets, entering
homes to sound off the demons with loud clanging bells and smoke, and
“killing” the evil harbingers by sweeping through rooms with their swords.
During the fertility rites the kukeri leader, who on occasion carries a large
red phallus, simulates sexual encounters with the women in the village to
ensure that everything (and everyone) is ready to be “fertilized” in the new
year, something that would no doubt see him slapped with a sexual harass-
ment case in the West but accepted here with much hilarity. You can see the
best, most frightening, examples of kukeri masks, as well as plenty of pho-
tographs, in Sofia's ethnographic museum (see above), or arrange to see a
real “Festival of the Kukeri”—the largest (and most accessible) is held in
Pernik, when some 3,500 revelers dress up to participate in this ancient rit-
ual during the last weekend in January (every even-numbered year). Pernik,
30km (19 miles) southwest of Sofia, is a short bus or train trip away. Alter-
natively, if you're traveling in March, make sure you're in Shiroka Luka (see
below).
RILA MONASTERY
120km (74 miles) south of Sofia
Bulgarian monks knew how to pick prime real estate, and Rila is no exception.
Accosted by the thundering sound of water charging over large boulders—two rivers,
the Rilksa and Drushlyavitsa, flank the monastery—and the startling sight of thick
alpine forests rising above you like cliffs, their thick triangular fingers clasping snow-
capped peaks that sparkle like diamonds, you know you are in one of the most beau-
tiful places in Bulgaria. And that's before you've even stepped inside.
The country's biggest monastery, Rila was included in the UNESCO World Heri-
tage List in 1983 as “a characteristic example of the Bulgarian Renaissance, symbol-
izing an awareness of a Slavic cultural identity following centuries of occupation.”
The original sanctuary was founded in the 10th century by the followers of Ivan Ril-
ski “The Miracleworker,” aka St. John of Rila, who lived in a tiny cave about a 30-
minute walk from the monastery. Revered by kings and subjects alike, the monastery
was a cultural and religious refuge during centuries of foreign rule, but it was during
the 1830s that the monks gave physical expression to its powerful position within the