{"id":789,"date":"2019-05-09T23:25:36","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T20:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/survakari.com\/en\/?p=789"},"modified":"2019-05-09T23:25:37","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T20:25:37","slug":"bogdanov-dol-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/survakari.com\/en\/2019\/05\/09\/bogdanov-dol-village\/","title":{"rendered":"Bogdanov Dol Village"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bogdanov Dol is located about 10 km\nfrom the town of Pernik and is in close proximity to the main road to the town\nof Breznik.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most active survashkari, <\/em>who from the year 1966 until\ntoday, for 52 years has not missed a single Surova<\/em>\nfeast, tells that he started at the age of eight, because from his relatives\n17-18 people took part in the feast in Stamenova neighborhood. Back then he was\nthe only child in the group. The other children in the village hid under their\nbeds when the survashakri<\/em> came. Now\nhe is the oldest survashkar <\/em>in his\nfamily, but they all still participate. He keeps 15-16 masks, gives them to\nanyone who wants to take part, but then takes them back for the next Surova<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 60s and 70s of the 20th<\/sup>\ncentury the masks were called likove <\/em>(faces),\nthey were made of bird feathers and wings and some of them were 3-4 m high. Now\nthey are mostly from leather. The front part is a wooden pot, made from stumps\nof red willow and poplar, which they gather along the river. A few decades ago,\nwhen many animals were bred in the village, finding and processing leathers was\nnot a problem. The \u201cRhodope\u201d meat processing factory in Pernik also provided\nwith materials. Now there are no animals in the village, but the survashkari <\/em>are dressed in leather\noveralls, which the group managed to supply in the 90s from the warehouses of\nthe local military bases, which ceased to function. The local survashkari<\/em> use horse tails for their staffs\nand masks, because \u201clong ago the flag of the proto-Bulgarians used to be a\nhorse tail\u201d. They are supplied by the same survashkar\n<\/em>from places where horses are slaughtered. The storyteller has performed all\nkinds of characters \u2013 \u201cthe bride\u201d, \u201cthe standard bearer\u201d, \u201cthe priest\u201d, \u201cthe\nbear keeper wearing a\nshepherd\u2019s woolen cloak\u201d, \u201cthe best man\u201d, \u201cthe father in law\u201d, a survashkar<\/em> with a mask and heavy bells\nand what not\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the night of 13 to 14 January the\nwhole village waits for them with love and hope. The doors are open for them\nall around. They go from one neighborhood to the other. People can tell where\nthey are from the loud yelling \u201cSurovaaa<\/em>\u201d\nand the bells. The survashkari<\/em> do not\ngo to a house where someone has recently deceased. Sometimes they do not even pass\nthrough the neighborhood. And if someone from the group has recently deceased,\nthey do not go on Surova<\/em>, or disguised\nand masked visit his grave and honor him on the day. There were some years with\nmore death cases and the group did not visit the houses but only passed through\nthe main streets, because the residents themselves wait, honor and want the feast\nand insist that the group plays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One year on 14 January the Surova<\/em> feast coincided with the wedding\nof a local couple. On the one end of the village square was the chain dance\n(horo) of the wedding, and on the other was the horo of the survashkari<\/em>. Then they played together.\nThe Surova<\/em> \u201cbride\u201d joined the horo\ndance with the real bride and the experience was amazing. The whole village\ngathered to watch and the joy of the double celebration was discussed during the\nwhole year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The money, which the hosts give to\nthe \u201cbride\u201d, the group always donates for the treatment of ill children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once each house in Bogdanov Dol was\ninhabited and the tour around the village was long and tiresome, but full of\njoyful experience. Now many of those houses are empty, but the Surova<\/em> is a living and loved holyday.\nThere are around 300 permanent residents of the village, 60 of whom participate\nin Surova<\/em> masked. A great part of\nthem are children. Their parents invest a lot if they have not been survashkari<\/em> themselves and their\nchildren do not have a requisite to inherit from them. The mask, the costume,\nthe leather belt, and the bells, numbers 1 to 16, cost around 3000 leva, but\nthose parents spend the money so that their children are able to participate.\nBecause \u201cthere is no Surova<\/em> anywhere\nelse in the world. Only here, with us\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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