International Festival of the Masquerade Games on 24th and 25th January

info by carnaval.com

For ages in January the lands of Pernik region have resounded with the ringing of bells, with songs, chanting and blessings for good health, longevity, rich harvests, and good luck. The participants prepared the whole year through for this holiday, known as "Surva", and the entire village celebrated the holiday. It was extremely interesting for the participants to find out what preparations their friends of the adjacent village had made, in order to display better and more interesting faces (masks) than theirs.

According to the traditional beliefs of the Bulgarian people, the play of the masked people is a ritual blessing for health, prosperity and welfare.

Today the old tradition is transformed in a unique festival that represents the entire variety of masquerade games in Bulgaria. It preserves, enriches and exhibits the most vital and stable traditions of the masquerade rites, which the Bulgarian people have kept from ancient times until present day. The festival is a sort of review of the winter and pre-spring masking customs. The masked participants are called survakari, babugeri, dzhamilari, etc. They are dressed in hides with the fur remaining on the outside, or in traditional women's costumes. All participants wear heavy strings of bells, cowbells, and rattles on their waists, and on their heads they wear grotesque masks made of feathers, wings, whole birds, animal heads, etc.

The Pernik Festival was internationally acknowledged by the Foundation of European Carnival Cities – FECC, seated in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Since January 1st 1995 Pernik is the 43rd member of this respectable international organization and has the opportunity to be present in the wide network of festival cities around the world.

This year the festival will be held on 24th and 25th January. There will be particiants of all folklore regions of Bulgaria, as well as guests from Egypt, France, Portugal, Slovene, Serbia and Macedonia. A lot of colours, noise and fun! If you see it, you won't forget it!