Mummers festival "Surva" visits Sofia

On January 5th, starting at 12:00 PM, Borisova Gradina park (Borisova Garden) in Sofia will become the stage for the traditional mummers festibval "Surva".

The Sofia edition of "Surva" is organised with the support of the Sofia Municipality as part of the Cultural Events Calendar. The vibrant programme will be suitable for both children and adults. The festival will begin with a parade of masks presented by Survakars' groups from Pernik.

Dr. Milena Lyubenova, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Ethnology and Folkloristics with the Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), will explain the origins of the "Surva" custom and why it is traditionally celebrated at the beginning of the year. The parade will feature Survakar groups from the villages of Meshitsa, Gabrovo Dol, Rasnik, Stefanovo, Cherna Gora, Noevtsi, Kladnitsa, and Sopitsa, Pernik municipality.

Nearly 200 participants will take the stage to recreate the magic of Surva and show why this festival is included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The traditional festival "Surva" has more than 30 editions in its history.

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The international festival of masquerade games "Surva" is held every year in the town of Pernik at the end of January. It is the oldest festival of the masquerade games in Bulgaria and is the largest masquerade forum in the Balkans. The first edition was opened on 16th of January, 1966.

In 2015, "Surva" was listed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Mummers (Kukeri in Bulgarian) is a Bulgarian tradition of Thracian origins. In ancient times the old Thracians held the Mummers Play in honour of god Dionysus.

Mummers plays are performed by men only, dressed in colourful hand-made costumes and wearing scary masks. Each wears a leather belt around the waist with huge copper bells (chanove) attached to it. The mask, according to folklore beliefs, protects from the harmful influence of evil spirits.

The dance of the masked men is a mystic unity of rhythm, sound, and colour. Moving in a special step, mummers walk around, jump and dance special magic dances to scare away the evil spirits, to celebrate the beginning of spring and hopes for a good harvest, health, land fertility, and happiness.

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