Winter in Bulgaria these days is not as severe as the older generations remember it. We’ll tell you, however, what the folk legends and fairy tales say about it.

Bulgarian traditional beliefs of the winter comprise both folklore and Christian motiffs.  There is this belief that three saints went to the Sun one after another to beg him for winter on Earth. First started off St. Dimitrius in October, followed by St. Nicholas in December and St. Atanasius in January who managed to bring winter to the Earth. The belief has it that the three of them put on either six or nine fur-coats when they started on their way to the Sun. When they returned, each of them carried snow in their beard and every time they shook their heads, snow fell on the ground. The traditional belief also has it that the first snow has a curing effect. That’s why the first time the ground gets covered with snow, people used to go out to rub themselves in it and wash their faces.

Some say that the saints used to carry the snow in big bags, which they emptied on the ground. But this only made farmers happier because they knew the thicker the snow was, the more fertile the land would be in the summer and the greater the abundance in every home.

There are yet other folklore explanations of how snow came to being. One of them tells that at the beginning snow used to be nothing but flour. But once a peasant woman brushed her dirtied hands with it. This lack of respect enraged God and he turned the flour into snow. According to another belief, snowflakes are actually pieces of God’s white shirt. And when people become very sinful, God sends them an omen, black or bloody snow, to warn them of His anger and punish them for their sins.

According to Bulgarian traditional meteorology, winter is crafted by the winds. The westerly wind, called also “gornyak”, freezes everything and brings in the most severe cold. The Northern wind also covers the ground with ice, followed by the wind named “koshava”, which brings in the snow. The same effect is achieved by the Northeasterly wind of the name “kozitsa”. Still, the most unpleasant among all winter winds is the westerly one, the “gornyak”. It brings with it clouds, snow, slush and sleet. All of these however, disappear the moment the southerly wind blows in, the so-called “yuzhnyak”, the Southerner, also known as the white wind. A fairy tale has it that the Southerner and the gornyak, the westerly wind, are deadly rivals and enemies. Once the gornyak boasted of being the strongest one in the world, mightier than the Sun even, because when he starts blowing, even the Sun cannot unfreeze the land. When he heard of the gornyak’s vainglory, the Southerner responded that he was the stronger one, because he can melt in a matter of hours what the gornyak has been trying to freeze for a week. And so, they made a bet. The gornyak blew for a whole week and turned everything into ice, the land became as hard as a rock. “Here, the gornyak said conceitedly to his rival, come and unfreeze this.” The Southerner gave a very quiet and soft blow and in less than a day there was no trace left of the glassy ice. At this sight, the gornyak became very angry and even more evil. So he said to the Sun: ”Look, the Sun is laughing at you!” The Southerner looked up and then the gornyak attacked him and blinded one of his eyes. Nevertheless, the Southerner remained the Sun’s friend and the gornyak, his eternal enemy.

A very cold, snowy and long winter became the reason for the birth of the Milky Way, a Bulgarian folk story tells. A poor peasant ran out of straw for his kettle, and the spring with its fresh grass was still too far ahead. So one night, the poor man decided to sneak into his best man’s house and steal some of his straw. In the morning the best man noticed that someone had been into his home and following the straw covered traces came to the poor man’s house. He felt very offended that it was namely the man who should respect him the most, that had done him such an evil and said to him: “Why didn’t you ask me for some straw? I was going to give it to you readily!” Ashamed, the poor man denied to have stolen the straw from him. Then the best man said: “Let the stolen straw come afire and burn forever, so that it can be known and remembered when a groom stole from his best man.” And so, this is what happened. The burning trace rose to the sky and has been shining there ever since. That’s why peasants call this starry path “best man’s straw” and we know it as the Milky Way.

English version by Enlish Section staff