{"id":777,"date":"2019-05-09T23:13:52","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T20:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/survakari.com\/en\/?p=777"},"modified":"2019-05-15T21:39:54","modified_gmt":"2019-05-15T18:39:54","slug":"berende-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/survakari.com\/en\/2019\/05\/09\/berende-village\/","title":{"rendered":"Berende Village"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The beautiful Berende village in the\nZemen municipality is situated in the foot of Tsarna gora Mountain, beneath the\nTumba peak. Today, there are already only about 20 people permanently living\nthere. At first glance, it seems that live has stopped there. But the feast Surova<\/em> is alive\u2026 Everybody, whose origin\nstarts from this little piece of land, return every year on 13 and 14 January\nin order to play with the masks, because their descendants have done it and\nthey carry it as a cultural heritage in their hearts and in their souls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many people are in the survakari<\/em> group? The participants in it\nare three times more than the local population. Some of them are disguised as a\nbride and a groom, a bear and a bear keeper, a priest, drum-players. They\ngather before every Surova<\/em> to decide\nwho would perform these personages and that is the most difficult moment,\nbecause all of them want to be bell-wearers \u2013 to be hidden behind the masks and\nto carry the heavy ropes with bells on their waists. Most valuated are the\nhandmade bells hlopatari<\/em>. The group\nleader recently bought such bells for his father, whose eyes filled with tears\nfor delight, because the son fulfilled his childhood dream. There are about\nfifteen children, the youngest being 5-years old, and the oldest \u2013 13. The\nbell-wearers have masks, made of bird feathers and wings, or others from animal\nleather on wooden hollows with horns. The costumes are from many-colored pieces\nof fabric cut into stripes. In the more remote past, these stripes were\nunicolored, asymmetrical, with different length. The materials are gathered\nfrom people who raise animals and birds, and the masquerade participants\nthemselves process them throughout the whole year. Until several years ago,\nevery survashkar made his mask on his own. Today an enthusiast makes about ten\nnew masks every year, so that there is a mask for everyone who wants to\ndisguise. They preserve them in a hall, above which there is an inscription\n\u201cSurvakar\u2019s Club\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the evening of 13 January, the\nBerende masquerade group visits the villages of Elov Dol and Chepino, and\nwelcomes around the fire in their own village groups from other villages,\nmostly the one from Gigintsi. They always gift the guests with torches, bells, diplomas.\nOne of the survashkars from many years this year made 80 torches to be\navailable for the members of the village group and for the guests as well. On\nthe morning of 14 January the group visits every house, where people are present,\nto wish them good health and a gratifying year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once, in the 1950s\u20131960s, from every\nhouse in the village about ten survashkari took part in the masquerade. Now the\ninhabited houses are about ten. But, as one of the participants says: \u201cIt is sure that while we are around, the\nSurova will exist. And our children will preserve it after that as well\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recorded in 2019 \u0433. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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