{"id":904,"date":"2019-05-10T17:37:57","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T14:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/survakari.com\/en\/?p=904"},"modified":"2019-05-12T12:08:16","modified_gmt":"2019-05-12T09:08:16","slug":"divotino-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/survakari.com\/en\/2019\/05\/10\/divotino-village\/","title":{"rendered":"Divotino Village"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Divotino is situated 4 km north from\nthe town of Pernik. Nowadays the most beloved holydays in the village are the\nlocal fair on 24 May and Surova<\/em>. In\nthe archive of the Regional Historical Museum the story of Ek. Kirilova is preserved.\nShe was born in 1897 and her narrative suggests a lot of valuable information about\nthe state of the feast in the very beginning of the last century. Here is the story\nof Ek. Kirilova:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor\nSurova in each house are prepared banica (cheese pie), bread, pork with\ncabbage, drinks, pretzels (kolacheta) for the little children. Our table should\nbe full this evening, so that we have an abundant year \u2013 in the fields and in\nthe house. And we are expecting guests as well \u2013 the survashkari. Those are a group\nof bachelors, dressed in festive costumes. They were going from house to house\nthe whole night shouting on the streets: \u201cSurovaaa, Surovaaa\u201d. One of the\nsurvashkari is dressed as a bride \u2013 in a new pretty pinafore dress. On his head\n\u2013 a red silk kerchief, tied like on a real bride \u2013 with a flower tucked on the left\nside, and a feather \u2013 on the right. All those clothes he has taken from a\ncertain pretty maiden, who has given them out for good luck. Next to the\nsurvashkari \u201cbride\u201d there is also a \u201cgroom\u201d, dressed in his finest clothes and\nwith a leather cap on the head, we call him \u201cgroom in a hat\u201d. With them there\nare a \u201cbest man\u201d, a \u201clady of honor\u201d, a \u201cbrother in law\u201d \u2013 everything like on a\nreal wedding. There is also a \u201cstandard bearer\u201d with a flag. And some of the\nbachelors dress like gypsies and make their faces black. They bring a mop from\nthe fireplace to stain the people in the village. The group has a drum, they\nplay the fiddle, dance\u2026 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through\nthe whole night, the survashkari go from yard to yard and do not miss a house,\nbecause the hosts will be offended. \u201cThe bride\u201d carries a decorated stick and\nlightly pats everyone, who welcomes them. In each house, she taps the host and\nhis wife on the head or on the back. In the houses where there are girls, they jest\nwith them \u2013 they pinch and hitch them\u2026 And the maidens bring gifts on a tray\nand empty them in the bags of the survashkari. They give them gifts for good\nhealth. When I was a maiden, I made presents for them too. The gifts are meat,\nflour, pig fat, rakia (brandy)\u2026things like that. We wait for them the whole\nnight and when we hear them yelling on the street we jump up: \u201cThe survashkari\nare coming!\u201d We go out, push the door wide open and happily welcome them. Dad\nused to say: \u201cYou will play for my good health\u201d and they started the horo (chain\ndance). The horo is a circle \u2013 only to the right. They would turn it three\ntimes in our yard and go to the next house. Sometimes the maidens would go\nafter them to the next few houses to watch them and enjoy their performance.\nThe whole night the bachelors go round the village, the whole night they yell\n\u201cSurovaaa, Surova New Year!\u201d They yell at one end and you can hear them at the\nother. If they do not say \u201cSurova New Year\u201d, we would not give them gifts. I can\nsee now (70s of the 20th<\/sup> century) that they started wearing <\/em>leather<\/em>s<\/em> and rags\u2026, they put masks on their faces\u2026 horns\u2026, but\nin my childhood there were no masks and costumes like that. Only \u201ca wedding\nparty\u201d, the survashkari are a \u201cwedding party\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very\ngood feast. The best!…\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays in Divotino there are 120\nparticipants on Surova<\/em>, dressed in\ncostumes made of ribbons, with heavy bells on the belt and huge masks made of\nfeathers and bird wings. The feast is anticipated with joy and enthusiasm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Archive of the Regional Historical\nMuseum \u2013 Pernik<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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