Bulgarian Tradition - "Nestinarstvo"
|
Nestinarka |
Nestinar |
Zharava | |
|
Nestinarstvo is a ritual originally performed in several Bulgarian- and Greek-speaking villages in the Strandzha Mountains close to the Black Sea coast in the very southeast of Bulgaria. It involves a barefooted dance on smouldering embers (zharava) performed by nestinari. The ritual is a unique mixture of Eastern Orthodox beliefs and older pagan traditions from the Strandzha Mountains.
After sunset, the crowd would build up a large fire and would dance a horo (a traditional round dance) until the fire dies and only embers remain. The Nestinari's barefoot dance on embers that follows as the climax of the night is accompanied by the beat of the sacred drum and the sound of a bagpipe. It is popularly thought that some of the dancers reach a religious state of trance while dancing, explaining why their feet don't burn and they allegedly don't feel pain.
|
|
|
|
|