{"id":1260,"date":"2019-05-11T19:21:10","date_gmt":"2019-05-11T16:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/survakari.com\/en\/?p=1260"},"modified":"2019-05-12T12:27:56","modified_gmt":"2019-05-12T09:27:56","slug":"stefanovo-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/survakari.com\/en\/2019\/05\/11\/stefanovo-village\/","title":{"rendered":"Stefanovo Village"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stefanovo village is located only 10\nkm away from Radomir. It has around 350 inhabitants and a great part of them\nmask and play on Surova<\/em>, as their\npredecessors have done. The custom is from \u201ctime immemorial\u201d. Until the 80s-90s\nof the last century, no women participated in the survashkari<\/em> groups and the children furtively ran along the masked\nmen. In the recent decades, women and children are the most enthusiastic part\nof the group. In it there should be \u201ca bride and a groom\u201d, \u201ca brother in law\u201d,\n\u201ca bear with a bear keeper\u201d, \u201ca priest\u201d, \u201ca standard bearer\u201d, \u201ca gypsy man and\na gypsy woman\u201d; there is also \u201ca doctor\u201d, \u201ca nurse\u201d, \u201ca policeman\u201d and musicians.\nFor a few years now, \u201cthe bride\u201d is Velin, who lives in Radomir, but is\ndelighted to disguise, to decorate with the bride\u2019s posy, and to go with the\ngroup. In the 60s and 70s of the last century, most of the survashkari<\/em> were only with faces painted in black or with torn\nsocks on their heads and put inside out caps, dressed with fur or pieces of\ncloth. Today they wear masks from natural materials \u2013 wood and leather. Mario,\nfor whom the manufacturing of masks is an art challenge, gathers strange wooden\npieces from the willows by the river, makes some final changes to them and with\npleasure offers a mask as a gift to everyone who wants to play on Surova<\/em>. Once, the survashkari<\/em> visited all the houses in the night of 14 January.\nNowadays the group sets off early in the morning starting from the most remote neighborhood.\nThe women from the vocal group are also up early. They prepare tea, coffee,\nbread, banitsa (cheese pie), and tripe soup, so that when the survashkari <\/em>end visiting the Gorni\nRakovets neighborhood and pass across the square on their way to the lower part\nof the village, they could take off the masks and have a rest for a while, getting\nwarm and having a snack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the houses in the village wait\nfor the survashkari<\/em> with joy and\nimpatience. In each house \u201cthe bride\u201d kisses the hand of the host, he gives her\na banknote and the hostess puts meat, peppers, pickled vegetables, honey,\nfruits, wine and rakia (brandy) in their bags. On the last feast, they were\ngifted with a few lamb heads, which is unusual and provoked much laughter,\njokes and frolic. In the houses with recently deceased they also welcome them.\nOnly the main characters enter the yard, the musicians do not play, no one\ndances, but the hosts know, that the visit of the masquerade group brings\nwell-being, they are grateful for it and also give abundant gifts. Accompanied\nwith much emotion is also the visit to the town hall. All survashkari<\/em> visit the mayor and play for him, and his donation is specially\nobserved and commented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the evening of 14 January after\nvisiting all the houses, the survashkari<\/em>\ntake off their masks, light a big fire on the square, and start a hot-tempered\ncelebration with all the local people to the accompaniment of the bells. The survashkari<\/em>, locals and guests join the\nhoro (chain) dance and play until late at night. The dishes with bread and banitsa\n(cheese pie) pass from hand to hand and the jests with wine and rakia (brandy)\nraise the spirits ever more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the next morning, the masks are\ncarefully stored in the cultural house saloon awaiting the participation of the\nStefanovo survashkari<\/em>  in the International festival of masquerade\ngames and the next Surova<\/em>, when each survashkar<\/em> will put on his mask and the\ngames will start again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the money, which the survashkari<\/em> have received from the\ngrateful hosts, the group buys new bells and accepts all the invitations for\nparticipating in festivals in Bulgaria and abroad in other near and remote\ncountries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recorded in 2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n