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BULGARIA AS IT IS!
Sirni Zagovezni is the last Sunday before Great Lent. Relatives ask one another for forgiveness; folk traditions also include bonfires and a festive meal.
Sirni Zagovezni is the last Sunday before Great Lent. Its Christian meaning is reconciliation: relatives ask for forgiveness before fasting begins. Folk fires and games add a spring layer to the celebration. Various explanations exist, but local practices should not all be traced to one certain ancient story.
The day marks the boundary between ordinary eating and Great Lent. In the church calendar it is Forgiveness Sunday; in the folk calendar the same period includes fires, masked games and a shared meal. These layers coexist, but do not prove that the entire celebration originated in a single pre-Christian ritual. Describing recorded actions is more accurate than inventing a common beginning.
In the evening younger people visit elders and exchange words of forgiveness. The meal includes dairy foods but no meat. Some families practise hamkane: halva, cheese or an egg is suspended on a thread and participants try to bite it without using their hands. For children it is a game; for adults it forms part of the festive home’s memory.
Forgiveness is an encounter between people. Younger relatives visit parents, godparents and elders to ask for and receive forgiveness before Lent. Bulgarian National Radio also describes hamkane with a boiled egg or white halva hanging from a thread. This is not an obligatory ritual for every Bulgarian family. Eggs and dairy foods remain on the table, while meat has already been excluded.
People light outdoor fires and gather to sing or dance. In some places they jump over the fire for health. Forms and local names differ, so the celebration has no single unchanging script. Its common thread is transition: from winter to spring and from ordinary life to fasting.
The bonfires make the transition visible outside the home. Local names vary; people gather around the fires and sometimes jump over them with wishes for health. Church forgiveness and folk festivities should not be combined into one “official” programme. They show how a day can belong to family memory, the local community and preparation for Lent at the same time.
Historical information, local examples and current practices were checked against these publications.
Created with ImageGen for СБОРЪ.БГ. An artistic interpretation of the custom, rather than a documentary photograph.
Biser Todorov · България; точното място не е посочено · 2016 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original