Birth and rituals related to the child
The norms of behavior related to conception and pregnancy are strictly regulated by tradition. Various ritual actions aim to ensure normal wear, easy birth, health and happiness of the future child. In Razlog in the past it was believed that a woman’s childlessness could be cured if she drank three times from the “klineva” water in the village of Godlevo or from the “klinevo bile” brewed in found wine.
A pregnant woman should not steal, because if she steals something, the “image” of the stolen object will appear on the baby’s body as a scar, in the place where the mother first touched herself after the theft. However, if the mother confesses and tells how and why she stole, the scar begins to diminish and may disappear.
If the pregnant woman has guests, and the time for childbirth is approaching, she must tear something (usually a thread) from the clothes of each guest, in order to have milk. In case of a difficult birth, magical actions are performed to relieve the mother – among them is to give her to drink water “from the eaves” (village of Dobarsko) – the ether rises high and pours a little water from the eaves, and the mother-in-law stands down and gathers it in his hands. It is believed that the mother should not sleep for at least three or four hours after giving birth, because a “tevnitsa” may come and she may die.
After birth, the grandmother, who has helped the child to be born, sprinkles ashes on the newborn from head to toe to dry and tighten the body. A few hours later, they bathe him in salt, geranium and money. When the grandmother takes the child out of the trough, she says some ritual words. The money from the trough is the grandmother’s reward. Immediately after birth, a small “Virgin’s cake” is prepared and smeared with honey. One piece of it is left for the Holy Mother of God, another is given to the mother, and the rest is divided among the family members. The whole loaf should be eaten at home, if this is not observed, the child will become a thief. The grandmother takes a morsel of bread in which the mother drips a little milk, puts it in a walnut shell or barrel, seals it with wax and buries it under the threshold of the room. This is done to preserve the mother’s milk.
In some places, three days, in other places one week after the birth, a second bread is kneaded, called “povoynitsa”. Relatives and neighbors are invited. Each of them brings as a gift dishes, bread, and somewhere they also bring food products (beans, flour, wheat, onions, eggs, etc.). wine. On the bread is put geranium, tied with red thread and a silver coin. Silver and gold coins are placed on the forehead of the newborn with a wish. The grandmother, who has helped the child to be born, puts the bread on her head and turns three times around the set table. Every time he turns, he shouts “up, up, up” and jumps. On the third turn, she breaks the bread with her head and puts it on the table to be snatched mainly by the children.
During the first week, the newborn is not swaddled, only dressed in white. If he is a boy, he is first wrapped in a rope – a symbolic wish to become a farmer. Garlic is sewn into the clothes of the newborn child so that it is not cursed.
Up to 40 days after birth, the mother is considered “unclean”, threatened by “bad eyes” or the influence of otherworldly beings. That’s why she doesn’t leave her house, and she is also forbidden to knead bread. During this period she does not go to church, only six weeks after the birth she can go to church and must bring a gift. On the way home, he has to stop at someone else’s house before she goes home. During these 40 days, when the mother’s relatives return from somewhere in the evening with a light candle, they have to extinguish it in the yard, because it is believed that the diseases go after the light and will “enter” the newborn’s home.
If the mother does not have milk, she performs the following actions: she goes to the cattleman with a piece of bread, chooses a dairy cow, which she seduces three times, and then eats the bread. It is believed that in this way she entices the cow’s milk to “come” to her. When a guest leaves, the mother neither looks at him nor says goodbye to him, so that her milk does not escape. The guest must answer in a specific way. If the mother`s milk accidently stops, people from the family go to the guest. He sprinkles some bread with salt and sends it to the mother. She has to eat it in order to get her milk back. If they bring a mother to breastfeed someone else’s baby after breastfeeding, she has to tear a piece (thread) from his clothes. If her milk is lost after breastfeeding, the mother of the child sends her bread sprinkled with salt.
In the past it was very important for the mother to have milk and to be able to breastfeed her child. There is a ritual when it comes time to wean the child off breastfeeding – in Razlog it is called “lachka” and is performed on Saturdays. An egg is baked, which is rolled on the child’s bottom three times and specific words are said. Then the egg is peeled and the child eats it. After that moment it should be no longer breastfed.
Until the baptism the child has no name, they call the him or her a Jew. The man who will be the godfather invites special people with a gift and wine, and he sends back bread and salt. In the past, it has often happened that children die young. When in a family children “do not stay” (ie die), they resorted to a specific ritual practice – “throwing a child for a new godfather.” In the days after the birth, the mother-in-law or grandmother takes the newborn to the crossroads before sunrise and, hiding nearby, waits for someone to pass. She goes out and reveals to him that he is lucky to be a godfather. She hands the child to him and they go home together. According to tradition, he could not refuse to participate in the rite and became a godfather.
Along with this custom in Razlog there was another – “buying a child”. Shortly after giving birth, a woman from the neighborhood took the baby for a day and thrust it under her shirt three times, saying each time it was taken out, “I gave birth to you.” Then she usually gives the child a dress. In order for the child to live, the parents, most often the mother, give money to this woman. From that day on, the woman who performed this ritual became very close to the family, something like a stepmother, they gave her a gift at Easter and invited her to the child’s wedding.
When the child makes the first independent steps, everywhere in Bulgaria is made „proshtapulnik”. It is widely believed that the ritual should be performed on a working day, in order the child to be hardworking. It was made in the past in Razlog and Razlog region, but it is preserved to this day. Relatives, mothers with children and others are invited. at home on a festive table. It is believed that good days for the “proshtapulnik” are Monday, Wednesday or Sunday. A woman with two living parents kneads a large wheat bread, on which, while still raw, the child steps on it to mark his foot. After the bread is baked, it is smeared with honey. It is given to the visiting children. They grab the pieces and run so that the child can run and get married easily. However, if, when he grows up, his marriage is delayed, another “proshtapulnik” could be organized, in order to get married sooner.
“Proshtapulnik” is also made to guess what the child’s future profession will be. A beehive is placed in front of the family house, covered with a white towel, on which the items from which the child will choose are arranged. In advance, the parents have “named” which subject will symbolize which profession. Before starting the “game” the grandmother covers the child three times with the hive for health, and after choosing an object, the parents hand out cookies and everyone has to run a little for the child’s health.
At an older age, when the child changes his deciduous teeth with permanent ones, he should throw the extracted tooth on the roof and say specific words.
Marriage
Before a wedding, traditionally, relationships between young people began with liking and teasing between girls and boys – sitting down together, walking for water, dancing in the village square, and others. An engagement follows, and it takes several months, sometimes even a year, to organize a wedding. At this time, the families of the girl and the boy are preparing hard. Especially important are the actual wedding customs, which take place throughout the week. After the first wedding night, which was very important in the past, come the post-wedding customs – walking on water, the bride’s unveiling and the post-wedding visits of the young family to the girl’s parents.
The wedding tradition in Razlog begins with an engagement. Relatives and friends of the boy, usually three people (father, 2 uncles, or married brother), called “glavezhare” go to the girl’s house. They look at how the house is arranged and cleaned, how they will be greeted, etc., in order to judge whether the family whose maid they will take is good enough. It is important on which days the “glavezhare” will make their visit – Tuesday and Saturday are avoided, because in folklore they are bad days.
The boy’s relatives were welcomed at the girl’s home by her parents. The hosts have prepared special flowers, each tied with red thread, of which they give to all guests. After the relatives from the boy’s and the girl’s side agree, the fiancés leave and in the next two weeks the girl should not see her future fiancé. When they are over, it is time for the so-called “big engagement”. The boy’s relatives come again, but this time they are greeted with a rich table with various dishes such as bread, pie and many others. After everyone is seated at the table, the boy’s father tells his fiancé that they have come with God’s blessing to take his daughter as their daughter-in-law. If the girl’s father says he agrees, the young are already considered engaged. However, until a wedding is held, they do not get together to live together, and this can continue for a long time – until their parents decide that they are sufficiently prepared. In Razlog, young people usually stay for 3-4 months fiancés and then their parents agree and set a day for the wedding.
It’s time for the wedding, it’s always on Sunday, but the preparations for it start during the week. At the beginning of the week, the groom’s family brings the bride a large wheat bread mixed with eggs, cheese and butter, sprinkled with a fork. They also bring her a casserole with meat and rice, wine and rakia.
On Thursday, the mother collects the bride’s “cheiz” – these are the fabrics, clothes, tablecloths, bedding and others prepared by the future bride, which she will take to her new home. It is characteristic of Razlog that the girl’s neighbors have to look at her “cheiz”.
On the same day, bread for the best man is kneaded in the boy’s home. It is prepared by a girl with living parents. Silver coins are placed in the flour. Traditional dishes, wine and brandy are prepared and consumed – all decorated with geraniums. While kneading the bread, two groups of maidens sing ritual songs.
On Thursday, the boy, his parents and relatives also visit the girl’s home to decorate flowers on her head. There should be a flower sprinkled with dew, geranium and other flowers (basil is not added). They are tied with red thread on which there are coins. The flowers are laid by the brother-in-law.
Wine and rakia are brought by the groom for this ritual. Then the girl gives gifts to the guests: she gives a shirt and a towel to the mother-in-law, a shirt to the father-in-law, and a towel to the brother-in-law. At the wedding, this towel is sewn on his back and so he leads the wife to the man’s home. The poorer people, who did not have a good towel, took someone else’s, which they returned to its owner after the wedding. They gave the groom a specially prepared gift. The money given at the engagement and the wedding must be an odd number. This is related to the symbolism of numbers in folk culture, where the odd number due to its “incompleteness” is associated with life, and the even – with death. On departure, the girl gives the guests geraniums, and they give her money.
While flowers are being hung at the girl’s house, on Thursday a “feruglica” is made in the boy’s home – a wedding flag, which is a colorful (red) towel attached to a thick straight pole. The preparation of a flag has a ritual character. The wood from which it is made can be dogwood, rosewood, family tree, pine, rosehip, reed. Small bells are sewn on the edges of the towel, which make a sound when it flutters in the wind. One or three gilded apples with green boxwood or ivy leaves are nailed to the top of the rod. Usually the newlyweds eat an apple after the wedding for health and to have children. The ritual making of the wedding flag is accompanied by a ritual female song without accompaniment of instruments.
В с. Добърско текстът на песента е следният:
Феругло бела и цървена,
феругло синя и зелена, и
Феругло синя и зелена,
феругло мудра и морава, и
ти като летиш по небо,
ти ле маглите разбиваш, и
On the Saturday before the wedding day, the girl is kneaded a large wheat bread, which is covered with an apron. On Sunday, this bread is placed on the bride’s luggage, which is loaded on a horse brought from the boy’s house.
A variant of a bachelor party and a bachelorette party in Razlog is the so-called “goshchene” – it is held on Saturday night at the girl’s and the boy’s homes. Relatives bring a pie, roast lamb or pig, filled with rice, kapama, cheese, rice milk, tiganitsi (mekitsi), wine, rakia and others. After dinner, the young people dance.
Early in the morning of the wedding day (Sunday) the musicians come to the boy’s home – usually trumpeters and drummers, typical of the region. They play all before noon, until all relatives and friends gather and together they go to invite and “take” the best man. They bring him wine and bread, and a bagpiper plays in front of them. The best man greets them with sweets and rakia. He is an important ritual figure in Razlog, as well as elsewhere in Bulgaria. Here it is called “kaltyata” and the godmother is called “batinaa”. Then they go to the girl’s house to “take” the bride.
In her home, her friends weave a wreath for the woman. Wedding wreaths are among the hallmarks of the Bulgarian traditional wedding. In the Pirin region in the past, the ivy for wedding wreaths was picked up in complete silence, and in its place was left bread, red thread and a coin. Ivy is associated with the fairies because it is believed that they roam where it grows. Therefore, on their return from picking, the girls had to go through water to “purify” themselves. In Razlog, traditionally, the wreath for the bride is waved by a girl with two living parents, and the other girls give her flowers. At the same time, girls in two groups sing ritual songs. In this region, two wreaths are also twisted at the best men’s`house. The wreaths are connected with twisted white and red thread.
On Sunday morning, women – friends of the bride, prepare her from early in the morning. Then her parents welcome the whole wedding procession that came for her. At this time, the bride-to-be is locked in a room and the boy and his father have to pay the girl’s brother or another man by the girl to let them in. Having collected enough money, they open the door of the room and make way for them to enter.
In the recent past, all the bride’s unmarried girlfriends wrote their name on the bottom of one of their shoes. They danced with them throughout the wedding, and at the end of the party they watch which girl’s name is the most worn out, which means that she would get married soon. After the bride’s parents handed her over to the boy and his parents, they loaded the “cheiz” on a car and drove to the church, where the young people were getting married. When a girl leaves home, she should not look back so as not to return to her father’s home.
When the couple arrives at the boy’s home, his mother welcomes her new daughter-in-law with bread and wine. The bride has to bow to her three times. Then the mother-in-law gives them two loaves of bread and a jug of water – the wish is to walk on water. The boy’s mother also surrounds them with a towel and pulls them to enter at the same time, which is a wish that they never separate. A more recent tradition in Razlog requires the newlyweds to stay together until the girl’s mother (mother-in-law) gives them what she has prepared for them, then kisses their hands, does the same with the father-in-law, mother-in-law and all other guests. After distributing the gifts to everyone, people play until late at night. There is a ritual at the wedding table in Razlog – the best man feeds the bride by placing three bites of bread on his knee. She should bend down three times and take it by mouth.
Late in the evening after the meal, the festivities and the people, the best man is sent off with music, but before that he takes off the bride’s veil to prepare her for the so-called wedding – the first wedding night. Another option from Razlog is for the godmother to take off the veil of the bride with a rolling pin. Specific words should be said.
In case everything is fine and the girl is a virgin, after the first wedding night, on Monday morning, the mother-in-law brings the bride’s mother sweetened hot rakia – a sign that her daughter’s honor is preserved. However, if it turns out that the girl is not a virgin, in Razlog there was a specific ritual for reporting – the groom himself went to the forest and shouted a message. It is clear that the message is not for the forest, but for the community, but this was the way to announce the bad news.
In addition to the sweetened rakia, the bride is also ritually taken to the water on Monday morning. She pours pitchers and her brother-in-law spills them. This is done up to three times, the third time she is taking them full. In Razlog the custom is called “na polivo”.
After the wedding, the young bride does not go to church for six weeks (40 days). Then she goes and brings gifts to the Holy Mother of God. Around Petkovden in Razlog, the relatives bring the bride “pletenitsi” (large wheat bread), cheese, pans, grapes and more.
Burial and remembrance
Rituals associated with death and burial are among the most conservative of family customs. Beliefs, ideas and practices are preserved in it for the longest time. As in many places in Bulgaria, in Razlog it is believed that there are various signs and events that portend death in the family. Among them are: the appearance of a snake in the yard or house, the howling of a dog, the crowing of a rooster in the evening (without being followed by other roosters), the landing and thumping of an owl in the house, the crowing of a raven over the house and many more. In some cases, the belief is linked to the agricultural livelihood of the people – if the unsown furrow in the fields is delayed, it is a sign that someone will die in the house. Also, if the deceased died with open eyes, according to popular belief, it means that he mourns for something or someone or that he “looks for another”, ie. another person from the house will die. At the place where the deceased lay, a woman must break a pot so that there will be no more death in this house. A candle is lit in the same place every night for three days – as long as the body of the deceased and a person has to stay there for some time. During these nights the candle must burn.
Usually in Razlog the place for a grave is chosen among the graves of other relatives. It is pre-smoked and poured with water and wine. An incense and food are placed on the table, in the home of the dead person after he is buried, a prayer is read. On this table are placed beans, wheat, “ribnik” (in Razlog this means a casserole with meat and rice), pure flour bread, and if you do not fast – and cooked meat. A black sheep or cow is slaughtered for him, as it is “for remembrance”. In the home of the deceased is distributed “archangel’s cake”, kneaded in honor of St. Archangel Michael, who according to popular belief collects the souls of people. He is depicted in the icons with a sword with which he draws out souls, but the righteous and the children are destined for a light death: the archangel gives them an apple to make them smile and so painlessly take away their soul.
In the morning after the funeral in Razlog, a ritual called “razbud” is performed. The women from the deceased’s home, together with relatives and neighbors, go to the grave with boiled wheat, bread, soup, a casserole with rice, milk with rice, wine, rakia, flowers and candles. A priest incenses the grave, pours wine over it and reads prayers. Many lighted candles are placed on the grave and this is called “razbud”. The food is distributed among those present and the gathered beggars. No food should be taken back. The grave is sprinkled with flowers, among which there must be basil, but not geranium. Geranium is associated primarily with festive occasions, while basil is present at death and remembrance. In a similar way, the “shupla” is a dish that is associated with a funeral and has no place, for example, at a wedding. If someone accidentally brings a hollow or basil to a wedding, it is considered a sinister sign.
Until 40 days after death, one goes to the grave every morning, pours water, wine and rakia, burns incense and prays. In Razlog it is believed that after death the soul first goes to God to worship him. It then returnes and visits all the places where it has been during its life. Then the soul goes through various challenges and after 40 days the soul appears before the Lord again to make its way to Heaven or Hell.
However, before the commemoration for 40 days, a “devetina” is made – on the ninth day after the funeral, the family kneads nine breads and a one “pogacha”, cooks wheat, prepares food, wine and rakia, and invites relatives and friends to a memorial service at the deceased’s house. The grave is not visited. The table is smoked by a priest who reads a prayer and pours wine on the “broken” (broken) loaves and bread.
One year after the death “tsalenitsa” is made. In his home, they knead only one loaf of bread, boil wheat, bake shupla, cook rice and other dishes, wine, rakia, and make a memorial service to which they invite relatives and friends. It is typical to put a full glass of wine on the wheat. All rites are performed by women. The priest lights an incense on the table and pours wine. In this commemoration, geranium root is exceptionally placed on the bread instead of basil – its symbolism is desirable to ignore the death and mourning of the deceased, and people in the house to think about the upcoming joys and merriment.