Kukeri Festival

The tradition of Kukeri is not limited to only Bulgaria but to this general area of the world. Usually the dances of the kukeri take place just after New Years or before Lent. The kukeri scare away evil and insure there is a good harvest, health and happiness in the village in the coming year. A group of dancers dress up in homemade scary outfits and dance with giant bells around their waists. Each village or town has their own costumes and they vary quite a bit. Some are colorful and some are scary.

Yambol Group

A colorful group

masks

Romanians

Romanians

 They dont practice kukeri in Avren, or in this area of Bulgaria, so I traveled to visit Neysa who's village does have a group. There are local holidays for kukeri and big festivals. I went to the festival in Yambol with Neysa's group and got to watch the youngest member get dressed.

Getting Dressed

Getting Dressed

Getting Dressed

Adding the beaded hat

Full Costume: with rabbit skin

Villages and towns send their kukeri groups with choreographed dances and they compete. I think there were around 60 in Yambol this year, they have one every year, and Neysa's village got 13th place.

Neysa and villagers

another team in the competition area

Neysa's Village Competing

after competing

 The festival was an all day thing. Aside from the people dressed as monsters and the sound of very loud cowbells all day long it was a familiar feel; there were food tents, popcorn, cotton candy, balloons, trinkets and anything else that is normal at a street fair to have.

Balloons for Sale

 There are volunteers that live in Yambol so there were a lot of people visiting for the festival, meaning I had people to travel on the 4 hour train ride with. Always a good thing, especially since this train ride was so packed (due to the fact that is was a long holiday weekend) that there were no seats and we stood in the corridor almost the whole time.