{"id":1272,"date":"2019-05-11T19:23:37","date_gmt":"2019-05-11T16:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/survakari.com\/en\/?p=1272"},"modified":"2019-05-12T12:02:54","modified_gmt":"2019-05-12T09:02:54","slug":"chepino-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/survakari.com\/en\/2019\/05\/11\/chepino-village\/","title":{"rendered":"Chepino Village"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chepino is located 8 km away from\nthe local municipal center Kovachevtsi. Nowadays there are only 40-50 permanent\ninhabitants in the village but on Surova<\/em>\nthe population increases ten times. So Dragomir Mirchev, who makes dozens of\nmasks, to suffice for all the men willing to participate in the feast, says: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChepino\nis a small village, but on Surova it is the biggest. Our masks are the best and\nbring joy to everyone. Wherever we go, they bow to us. This mask, for example,\nis like untouched, you want to fondle it. My wife as if pretends to be mad at\nme for being occupied only with this, but she fondles it as well. I make one\nmask for two weeks. I get the idea, I draw it and I start. First, I should\ncarve a wooden hollow for the face, than I attach corn leaves on the back, but\nI cut the leaves first to thin fringes. I glue feathers and wings upwards; I\nglue every feather one by one. On our masks there are thousands, no, hundreds\nof thousands of wings and feathers. Now I am teaching a young boy from the\nvillage to make the masks, so when I will not be able to make them anymore, he\nwill continue and the survashkari from Chepino will always be the best. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everywhere\npeople are happy with us and like us. Every year on 13 January at the evening\non the village square in Chepino several villages gather. We light a big fire\nand 300-400 people play around it with lit torches. We jump and play until\nlate. The friends and guests as if coming just to watch start playing with us\nas well. Then everyone \u2013 masked and unmasked \u2013 go to some of the other\nvillages. There is a fire there too; we play there until midnight as well. All\nthe hills around resound not only with the bells, but with the joy, which flows\non that day.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\ngo back home late at night and in the morning we go around in our own village\nfrom house to house. Everyone who has left Chepino and lives somewhere else\ncomes to the village for the feast and prepares a table full of food for us \u2013\nthe survashkari. They welcome us as dearest guests, enjoy and play with us. In\nevery house, \u201cthe priest\u201d marries \u201cthe bride\u201d and \u201cthe groom\u201d, \u201cthe bear\u201d mauls\npeople for good health, \u201cthe bear keeper\u201d plays the fiddle. Joy! When going out\nof the yard every host gives us money, meat, rakia (brandy), beans, peppers. It\nseems as if life in the village is dying, but everything around is full of life\non Surova.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\ndonate the money we gather for a general benefit \u2013 we made a renovation of the culture\nhouse (chitalishte) club, so that there is a place for the people who stay in\nthe village to gather in the evening; we helped renovating the \u201cSt. Nedelya\u201d\nchurch, which was quite neglected and on the decline, even one of the survashkari\nput the bell on it and the others helped with labor as well.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nSurova the masks are all stored at one place \u2013 in the hall of the culture\nhouse. If an outsider happens to go in, one would remain speechless from their\nbeauty, variety and magic. Many journalists, photographers, television editors,\nnewsmen have come through the years. They stay, look and remain silent in front\nof the tradition\u2019s power.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then\nthe village goes deserted again until the next Surova. This feast unites us and\nmakes people better.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Private archive<\/p>\n\n\n\n