{"id":893,"date":"2019-05-10T17:35:07","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T14:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/survakari.com\/en\/?p=893"},"modified":"2019-05-12T12:05:43","modified_gmt":"2019-05-12T09:05:43","slug":"divlya-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/survakari.com\/en\/2019\/05\/10\/divlya-village\/","title":{"rendered":"Divlya Village"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Divlya is 14 km northwest from the\ntown of Zemen. In it Vladimir Dimitrov \u2013 the Master, a great Bulgarian painter,\nre-created the beauty of Divlya\u2019s maidens on his canvases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Gencho Keremidchiev\u2019s ethnographic\nresearch from the distant 1948, he writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the Divlya inhabitants Surova<\/em> is the biggest feast in the year,\nbigger even than Bozhich<\/em> (Christmas).\nAll the events that happen are \u201cbefore\u201d or \u201cafter\u201d Surova.<\/em> For this day everyone should come home to the village and\nif someone is planning a departure, he deliberately delays his travel in order to\nbe with the survashkari<\/em>. The feast\nfever obsesses the young men long before the holiday. Absorbed in their\npreparation for the masquerade, they neglect their everyday chores. This gives\ntheir parents a reason to say, \u201cLet Surova<\/em>\nonce pass so you can settle\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the survakari<\/em> group only young men participate up to the age of 30. It should\ninclude \u201cbolyubasha<\/em>\u201d (leader), \u201cpodbolyubasha<\/em>\u201d (vice-leader), \u201ca\nmarriage procession with a bride, brother-in-law and sister-in-law\u201d, \u201ca priest\u201d\nand \u201ca bear with bear-keeper\u201d. The rest of the group participants are \u201cold men\u201d\nand \u201cgypsies\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boy-\u201cbride\u201d is dressed in a\ntraditional wedding dress, his head is covered with a veil. The sister and\nbrother in law are also in festive clothing \u2013 she is in a\ntraditional dress (saya<\/em>), and he is in traditional waistcoat\nand pants (mente<\/em> and benevreci<\/em>). \u201cThe priest\u201d wears a cardboard\ntop hat and a cassock from a woman\u2019s shirt, painted in black. The masks of the\n\u201cold men\u201d are oval or fan-shaped and are up to 2 meters high. They are made\nfrom feathers and wings of different wild and domestic birds, and just in front\nof the face an animal leather is stretched with holes for the eyes and the mouth.\nThe nose is made from pumpkin stem or red paprika, the beard and mustache are\nmade of wool and hemp. All of the \u201cold men\u201d are dressed in worn out women\u2019s\nshirts painted in red and cut in ribbons. On their belt they wear bells,\ndifferent in size and sound. The \u201cold men\u201d are armed with huge wooden swords\nand staves 3-4 meters long. \u201cThe gypsies\u201d are with faces painted in black,\ndressed in old rags, caring rag baby dolls and sell sieves, combs and spindles.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the night of 13 January the survashkari<\/em> go through all the houses in\nthe village to wish good health and a rich harvest throughout the year. When\nleaving the yard the group wishes \u201cWe \u2013 out of here, God \u2013 in here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the feast day of Surova<\/em> the masquerade groups of the\nvillages Divlya, Gorna Vrabcha, Dolna Vrabcha and Gorna Glogovitsa gather on\nthe Divlya village square. The common survashkari<\/em>\ncelebration begins. Under the sounds of the bagpipe and the drum and the\ndeafening sound of the bells, the \u201cold men\u201d jump wildly, play the horo<\/em> (chain) dance, make up funny pranks\nwith the surrounding people, wrestle with each other, jest with the girls\u2026 The\ncommon joy lasts the whole day and it is talked about throughout the whole year\nuntil the next Surova<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today the population of Divlya\nvillage has vastly declined, but the Surova<\/em>\ntradition is still alive and is performed every year on 13 and 14 January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Archive of the Institute of\nEthnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum \u2013 BAS<\/p>\n\n\n\n