In the Bulgarian national calendar, Saint George's Day is one of the biggest holidays of the year and the biggest spring holiday. It is known by the names Gergjovden, Gergevden, Gyurgovden, Gergi, Djurjovden, as well as Huderlez and Adreles, among Muslims and Pomaks.
The holiday is bound by the calendar - it is celebrated on May 6 and is celebrated in all territories inhabited by Bulgarians.
It begins the summer half of the economic year, ending on Dimitrovden. This placement in the holiday calendar also determines its extremely rich rites, covering all areas of people's economic and social life.
St. George's Day is celebrated in honor of St. George, traditionally understood as the lord of spring moisture and fertility (unlocks the springs and moisture, defeating the llama; walks and watches over the fields and crops), patron of farmers and especially of shepherds and flocks. Very ancient in nature, today there is still no complete unity of opinion about the origin of this holiday. According to some authors, it comes from Thracian antiquity, according to others it is Slavic in origin, there are also hypotheses that its traces are lost in the distant past of the proto-Bulgarians from Asia.
Today is also the official holiday of the Bulgarian Army, called the Day of Courage.
But anyway, in the Bulgarian traditional spiritual culture, this is one of the biggest holidays, more revered than Easter. A number of folk songs sing:
Have a nice day Easter
an even nicer St. George's Day.
On this holiday, a number of ceremonial practices and rituals are performed, aimed at ensuring health for people and fertility of fields and animals.
On the night before the feast, before the roosters crow, people go to a meadow or meadow, where they roll in the morning dew, because popular belief claims that at this time of the year everything is “covered with gentle dew”, as earlier, rolling in the dew was done naked. Somewhere they just walk barefoot on the dew or wash their face and hands with it, elsewhere they drink the dew. Bathing in the dew is done by people in order to keep them healthy and not have low back pain during the year. Barren women are also bathed in dew in the belief that they will become fertile. Another ritual moment related to the dew is collecting it and bringing it home. It is believed that the dew collected on St. George's Day has a special healing power.
Besides “bathing“ ritual bathing in rivers and springs is also practiced in the dew. In Chepelare, Muslim Bulgarians, after walking in the dew, go to the shrine of St. Georgi, where they wash or bathe, they bathe in rivers and springs and in the entire Middle Rhodopes, as well as in Trevnensko, Kazanlak, etc. As with the dew, and with washing with water, there is the custom of carrying water home ( in some places it flows in complete silence - the so-called silent water), with which ritual breads are mixed. Somewhere (Razgrad, Plovdiv) it is believed that on this day the water is so healing and giving strength that even bears bathe for the first time in the year on this day.
It is widely believed that the rain on St. George's Day (as well as that on Easter Day) is particularly fruitful - “Each drop bears a gem“.
After bathing in the dew, on the way back to their homes, people pick fresh green twigs (geranium, beech, nettle, lilac, etc.), with which they decorate the doors and thresholds of homes, stables and pens, put on the blankets of the children and of the yokes of the cattle, wreaths are made and placed on the heads of the domestic animals. Bachelors decorate the front doors of their loved ones with greenery, and maidens weave bouquets and wreaths and put them in their hair.
In Kyustendilsko, the girls pick “glue“ (burp) and they put it on their clothes so that the boys stick to them; the Pomakini girls from Chepelarsko “were looking for the love was delidilene“ and pretend to be wanted with it.
The custom of making swings on St. George's Day is widespread. They are tied to a tall leafy tree and the boys rock the girls, accompanied by songs and dialogues having a hidden marital-sexual orientation. In addition to swinging, almost all over the Bulgarian ethnic territory, scales are hung on leafy trees, on which people weigh themselves, believing that this is one of the ways to be healthy and vibrant during the year.
It is also believed that both on New Year's Day and early in the morning on St. George's Day, herbs have a special healing power and therefore herbs are also picked. It is also believed that this day is particularly suitable for spells to steal the fertility from other people's properties, and therefore on the night before the holiday, sorcerers (tricksters and fortunetellers) do their spells to “take over” of foreign fertility - “cheating“ the fruits of the fields and the milk and fruitfulness of live stock.
To protect themselves from this, in some places in Bulgaria, they try to kill a snake the day before St. George's Day, and on the day itself, they spray milk through its mouth. It is also believed that this day is one of the most suitable days of the year for the so-called bringing down and milking of the moon by the sorcerers, who supposedly turn it into a cow and milk it, gaining power over the milk.
On this day, farmers take the first red egg dyed on Maundy Thursday, go around the fields with it and bury it in the middle of it, believing that in this magical way they will stimulate her fertility. This is also done in stables and pens. Elsewhere they take straw from the Christmas Eve table and scatter it around the property or burn it on high places around the village grounds to keep out thunder and hail. Geranium, basil and other green herbs are placed on the vessels in which the sheep are milked, or green branches are stuck in the middle of the property.
According to popular beliefs, St. George, in addition to being the patron saint of farmers, is also the most powerful patron saint of herds, therefore a large part of the ritual practices and customs performed on this day aim to ensure the health and fertility of livestock.
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On St. George's Day, early in the morning, the animals are ritually led out to the first green pasture (on pasture), driving the herd with a green stick. On this day, the first ritual milking of the sheep takes place. The shepherds open the door of the pen and whichever sheep comes out first, decorate its head with a previously prepared wreath and milk it (elsewhere, the first lamb to lamb is milked). The bucket in which the sheep is milked is also decorated with wreaths or various green plants and twisted white and red thread (martenitsa). The door of the coop, as well as the coop itself, are decorated in the same way. The milk of the first sheep is milked through a silver ring, cowhide, wreath, and somewhere also through a river “Georgian stone” with a natural opening. The first drops of milk are poured on the ground or on an egg (not infrequently red), which is then buried in the ground. Somewhere the shepherds are thundering with rifles by the flock to drive away the evil spirits. It is a widespread custom to feed the sheep on this day with ritual bread prepared by the women. Also on St. George's Day, the first tasting of milk and milk products of the year takes place.
The custom of slaughtering a lamb on St. George's Day is widespread throughout the Bulgarian ethnic territory. On this day, every house, whether it owns sheep or not, must slaughter a lamb.
The choice of the sacrificial animal is different - somewhere it is the first lamb born in the year, elsewhere - the lamb of the first sheep out of the fold. The sex (first male) or color (first white) of the animal may also be considered. Before being slaughtered, it is also decorated with a wreath or flowers, fed with fresh greens, bran and salt (in some places also with ritual bread) and doused with water; somewhere they burn him with incense or the priest reads him a prayer. From the salt and bread with which it is fed, they also give it to the other domestic animals.
In the past, the lamb was usually wheeled around the house by the hearth, its blood seen splattering the wall. In some places, according to the thickness of the bloody furrows, it was divined whether the year would be fertile or not. After the slaughter, it is taken from the blood and smeared with it on the children's foreheads and cheeks, so that they will be healthy during the year. Door sills and room corners are smeared with this blood. The rest of the blood is collected in a container (which also has greenery) and buried in the ground in a clean place (in the sense of far from a dump, toilet, kapchuk, etc. places that are defined as “unclean” in the popular imagination) , where one does not step. In places in southern Bulgaria, the lamb is slaughtered under fruit trees and it is ensured that the blood soaks into the ground. In Western Bulgaria, the lamb is slaughtered by a river, with its blood flowing into the water (if it was slaughtered at home, its blood is carried away and thrown into the river). After the feast, the bones of the sacrificial lamb are also thrown into running water (“let the milk flow like water“), buried in the fields or in an anthill (“let the sheep be driven like ants“). From them, somewhere they keep the knuckle from the front right leg, which they use the following year to decorate the ritual St. George's bread, as well as the front shoulder - with it they treat the children of Uruk. In the Rhodopes, the front shoulder is used to predict the fertility of the year and the fate of the farmer.
Usually, the lamb is roasted whole, and after roasting it is taken to church to be consecrated, or if it is roasted at the common village table, the priest or the farmer smokes it on the spot.
The festive table is usually a communal one. It is done outside the settlement somewhere in the green - usually at a vow site, chapel or monastery (if there is one nearby). After it is consecrated, the roasted lambs, the ritual breads, the freshly milked milk and the curdled cheese, fermented milk and the like are brought to it. On this day, for the first time during the year, fresh garlic is eaten, which must be present on the table.
At the end of the festive meal, ritual practices related to both fertility and marriage orientation are performed again. In some regions of Eastern Bulgaria, the young brides at first stand straight by the table, “so that the hemp grows tall”, and then they run away, as the children measure them with bread crumbs for fertility. Elsewhere, newlyweds are also targeted with lumps of cheese for fertility. On St. George's Day, at the table, the best man ritually takes off the bride's wedding stockings and takes off her top wedding dress, tying it with a woman's headscarf, instead of the bridal one worn so far.
At the festive table (as well as during the whole day of the holiday) gaiety reigns and the so-called “St. George's Day Folks“ play. They usually play songs of a religious-mythical nature and those related to the motives of St. George - going around the field, defeating the lama and unlocking the springs and moisture. Fun is a must during the entire holiday.