How bulgarians celebrate Easter
by dok in Traditional Bulgarian on 2013-05-05
As a country with strong Orthodox Christian traditions, in Bulgaria there are a lot of habits in celebrating Easter. Some of them might be a bit weird for the foreigners but they have remained for a long time.We start the preparation for this feast a few days before it. On Thursday we dye eggs. The eggs can be in many different colors but the first two must be red. We use the very first one to draw a cross on children’s foreheads, so that they will be healthy and fit. We also keep this egg till next Easter when we break it and find out what the year will be: if the egg is still whole, the year will be rich and fertile while if it is rotten, the year will be unfruitful and difficult. The second red egg is brought to the church at Friday’s Mass.
On Friday we make our sweet Easter Bread – kozunak. It is very difficult to make it – people say that the kozunak dough should be dashed at least one hundred times to the floor. This is not the only hard thing about this special bread – you should wait till Sunday to eat it. Nowadays people elaborate the recipes of Kozunak by putting raisins, nuts and even chocolate.
On Saturday night, around midnight, we go around the churches and every person should do it three times while holding a candle in their hand. Then we should bring this candle to our homes.
The most special of the Easter days is Sunday. It is the day in which all the families gather together. The most typical Easter dish is lamb with rice and fresh salad with lettuce, radish and onion. On Sunday we eat the Kozunak and make “fights” with the painted eggs.