Chistmas in Bulgaria

Christmas is one of the lightest and brightest holidays that the Bulgarian people celebrate. It is celebrated on December 25 and 26, but the evening of December 24 is called Christmas Eve or Malka Coleda.

Christmas celebrations begin on December 24th with Little Christmas. Before the midday prayer, the Mother of God crucified the Lamb and gave birth to Little Christmas, but she announced about it the next day, as this is the first time for every mother of the first woman.

For this holiday, relatives gather from near and far, homes are full of smiles, and children are waiting for their dream gifts.

As we all know, the table on Christmas Eve or Little Christmas should be lean. Only products and dishes that the earth has given as a gift are placed on it. In the Bulgarian tradition, even the table should be as close as possible to the ground, and in old times the table for Christmas Eve was placed on the ground as a sign of worship. In addition to lean dishes, there should be a candle on the table, as well as a bag of yellow coins / a symbol of gold coins and fertility in the house/, and the number of prepared dishes should be odd. The meal is lit with incense by the oldest man in the house, saying a prayer. Traditionally, stuffed peppers with beans, oshav, vine or cabbage tinsel, soda bread,pastry with pumpkin,garlic and nuts are placed on the table.

The beginning of Little Christmas is Christmas or New Year’s Eve. Hay – an important field for her is Christmas Eve, the meal with the usual breads and dishes, and the ice cream. On Christmas Eve, this is an oak or pine tree cut down and brought home by young men, and it is this tree that supports the fire all night. When he returns home, the man asks the household: “Do you praise the Young God?”, the women answer: “We praise, praise, welcome! The man adds: “I am at home and God is with me!”

At midnight on Christmas Eve, carolers / not Santa Claus / come in to bring the good news and say a blessing to the owners and their home.

Christmas carolers – “welcome guests, harbingers of good days and the end of long fasts!” They come to the home with songs and blessings, with the power to bring health and success as after midnight and until dawn they ritually circle the village. Their purpose is to influence natural and social life in a magical way. Koledari are young men – boys, ready for domestication. They are led by an older married man who initiates and instructs them in the special rituals and songs. The songs are performed on the way, at the gates of the home, and inside the house for the householder and his family.The pronouns paint a picture of prosperity and happiness, a desired world presented as actually happening through verbal magic and the incantation “amen”, ie God make it happen.

Finally, blessed by the owner of the home, the “good guests” donate money and food and head to the next house in the settlement.

However, on the eve of Christmas, Christmas, the summer season, the master goes out into the garden and the tree in the tree threatens the fruit trees, that he will destroy them if they do not bear much fruit. Lunch comes before the roast pork, which is roasted for 40 – daily meals.

Christmas is the most beautiful and bright holiday in the Christian world. We can keep our traditions despite Santa Claus and colorful decorations.