Ethnic Festivals of the Mid to Late 20th – Early 21st Century as a Component of the Folklore Culture of Bulgaria

Author

Ohiienko Iryna

a Ph.D. in Philology, a research fellow of the Ukrainian and Foreign Folkloristics Department of M. Rylskyi Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine). ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/ 0000-0003-4783-1816

Ethnic Festivals of the Mid to Late 20th – Early 21st Century
as a Component of the Folklore Culture of Bulgaria

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the study of folklore festival culture in Bulgaria in the mid to late 20th – early 21st century. The characteristic features of the folklore festival culture of Bulgaria are considered, the main functions of the folklore festivals are determined, a number of well-known international, national and local ethnic folklore festivals taking place in different cities and villages of Bulgaria are classified.

The first ethnofestivals in Bulgaria are described, such as the Festival of Folk Art and Animal Husbandry in Rozhen, the Festival of Folk Art in Koprivshtitsa, the International Folklore Festival in Burgas, the Festivals of Folk Art Pirin Sings, Balkan Sings and Tells, which are held from the 1960s till nowadays. They have started the development of the folklore-festival movement in Bulgaria.

The ethnic festivals, held in Bulgaria, are classified. According to the time of holding, there are short-term and long-term festivals. According to the venue, Bulgarian ethnofestivals are stationary or mobile. According to geographical criteria, Bulgarian ethnofestivals can be divided into local, national, international and world. According to the age criteria of the participants, among the ethno-festivals there are children’s, youth, mixed festivals. Among the ethnofestivals the holidays of folk art, festivals of calendar and ceremonial holidays, festivals of authentic folk clothing, festivals of national cuisine, festivals of folk instrument ensembles, festivals of folk dances, festivals of folk crafts and trades etc. can be distinguished.

Keywords

ethnofestival, ethnofestivals in Bulgaria, folklore.

References

1. ACHEV, Ivailo. Meowing  – a Rite, which Takes Care of Marital Bliss. January 11, 2016 [online]. Available from: https://www.actualno.com/asenovgrad/mjaukane-ritualyt-kojto-se-griji-za-brachnoto-shtastie-news_517507.html#/?playlistId=0&videoId=0 [viewed August 5, 2021] [in Bulgarian].
2. BAEVA, Vihra. Rusalii and Căluşari – Shamans and Healing Experts. June 18, 2013 [online]. Available from: https://bnr.bg/ru/post/100202447/rusalki-i-kalushar-shaman-i-vrachevateli [viewed August 3, 2021] [in Russian].
3. BELOVA, Monika. Rites and Beliefs on Epiphany Holiday: A Unique Tradition Is Carefully Preserved in Bolyartsi. January 6, 2021 [online]. Available from: http://www.desant.net/show-news/26246 [viewed August 5, 2021] [in Bulgarian].
4. VYTKALOV, Serhii. Festival Movement as a Cultural Phenomenon of Modernity: An Analysis of Regional Vector. In: Vasyl SHEYKO, ed.‑in‑chief, Culture of Ukraine. Culture Studies Series: Collected Scientific Papers. Kharkiv: KhSAC, 2016, iss. 52, pp. 182–190 [in Ukrainian].
5. ZLATKOVSKAYA, Тatyana. On the Issue of Ancient Heritage of Southern Slavs and Eastern Romance-Speaking People. In: Yulia Averkieva, ed.‑in‑chief, Soviet Ethnography, 1978, no. 3, pp. 47–58 [in Russian].
6. MARINOV, Dimitar. Folk Beliefs and Religious Folk Customs. 2nd stereotyped edition. Sofia: BAS Publishers, 1994, 815 pp. [in Bulgarian].
7. International Folklore Festival [online]. Available from: https://www.burgas.bg/bg/mezhdunaroden-folkloren-festival/ [in Bulgarian].
8. The National Council for Intangible Cultural Heritage will Hold the Meeting at which It Will Consider the Possibilities to Organize the Festival in Koprivshtitsa in the Situation of Pandemia (April 5, 2021) [online]. Available from: http://mc.government.bg/object.php?p=46&s=27&sp=13&t=26&z=753&po=7778 [viewed June 20, 2021] [in Bulgarian].
9. NIKOLOV, Kaloyan. Folklore Festivals – A Modern Method of Preserving Living Cultural Heritage. In: Petko St. Petkov, Galina Bogdanova, eds.-in-chief, Cultural and Historical Heritage: Preservation, Presentation, Digitalization. Sofia, 2020, vol. 6, no. 1 (8), pp. 43–51 [in Bulgarian]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26615/issn.2367-8038.2020_1_004.
10. PEYCHEVA, Lozanka. Between Village and Universe: Old Folk Music from Bulgaria in New Times. Sofia: Academic Publishers “Prof. Marin Drinov”, 2008, 584 pp. [in Bulgarian].
11. FURDYCHKO, Andrii. Ethno-Festival Heyday of the Late 19th to Early 21st Centuries as an Indispensable Component of Folklore Movement in Ukraine. In: Stepan PAVLIUK, ed.-in-chief, The Ethnology Notebooks, 2018, no. 4 (142), pp. 1000–1008 [in Ukrainian]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15407/nz2018.04.1000.
12. CHERNETSKA, Svitlana. Folklore Festivals in the System of Modern Means of Ethnographic Information Dissemination and Popularization of Cultural and Artistic Heritage. In: Vasyl SHEYKO, ed.‑in‑chief, Culture of Ukraine. Culture Studies Series: Collected Scientific Papers. Kharkiv: KhSAC, 2011, iss. 35, pp. 155–164 [online]. Available from: https://ic.ac.kharkov.ua/nauk_rob/nauk_vid/rio_old_2017/ku/kultura35/18.pdf [viewed August 5, 2021] [in Ukrainian].
13. YAKOVLEV, Oleksandr. Festival Movement as a Factor of Integration and Preservation of the National Cultural Landscape. In: Valeriya SHULHINA, ed.-in-chief, Bulletin of the National Academy of Government Managerial Staff of Culture and Arts, 2018, no. 4, pp. 56–59 [in Ukrainian]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32461/2226-3209.4.2018.152961.
14. UNESCO has Accepted the Festival of Folklore in Koprivshtitsa as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. December 2, 2016 [online]. Available from: https://news.bg/culture/unesco-prie-sabora-v-koprivshtitsa-kato-nematerialno-kulturno-nasledstvo.html [viewed August 15, 2021] [in Bulgarian].