Batanovtsi is a small town in Pernik District, located in close proximity to the international road E871 in the section between the towns of Pernik and Radomir, only 6 km from the local district center. Its population is a bit more than 2000. The major local holidays are Spasovden (The Ascension of Christ) and Surova.
Every year in late autumn, the population of the settlement starts preparing for the traditional masquerade games. Men who will take part on Surova collect animal leathers, horns and wooden shells, from which they manufacture their costumes and zoomorphic masks. On the eve of the feast (13 January) they put on their leather clothes turned inside out, place their frightful masks on their heads, tie heavy strands of bells on their belts and gather on the square near the train station. Their mad dances around the fire attract the whole population there to play and share the celebration with them.
In the masquerade group of Batanovtsi, like in all of the others, mandatory characters are the “bride”, “groom”, “brother in law”, “standard bearer”, “best man”, “lady of honor”, “priest”, “sexton”.
On 14 January, the masked men visit all the houses in the settlement to wish their inhabitants good health, fertility and well-being throughout the year. The hosts expect and welcome them with joy, play with them and see them off with generous gifts. An old survakar (participant in the custom) in the town tells: “The best holyday in Batanovtsi is Surva. All around the Pernik region there are survakari, but we are better than the rest of them. As long as I can remember, we have always played and gathered the whole region.”
In the recent decades, in the Batanovtsi masquerade group many children join the custom. Children from the local kindergarten and school look forward to the Surva festival, gather animal skins and bells, help in making the masks, experience the biggest holyday of the town and with joy inherit the tradition.
Private archive
