Fire in traditional Bulgarian culture

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Young, wild, divine, midsummer’s day fire, or just live embers over which the fire-dancers dance… Fire has got many names and images in the Bulgarian traditional culture. Its meaning however does not vary much, it and has to do with its power to cleanse and bring light.

In Bulgarian folklore fire has magic powers – it keeps illness away, banishes evil spirits and protects from hails. Live embers, candles or firebrands were used to consecrate the home, clothes or objects. Men in the traditional community had the task of providing for firewood, while women and children were in charge of gathering sticks and kindling the fire. In traditional beliefs, the fire in the house should never die out. Otherwise nothing good was in store for its inhabitants. Keeping the fire was a constant process entrusted to the landlady or the housewife. Every night she carefully covered the embers with ashes from the hearth to be able to kindle the new fire early on the next day. Kindling the fire in a new home was always held with a special ritual. It was performed by the oldest woman in the household, and its purpose was to provide for sound health, understanding and wellbeing in the home.

The fire took center stage during a range of healing practices related to bullet molding and using embers that was often the work of sorceresses. In times of old fire was made close to the head of a woman in labor, and after the child was born, the fire was kept until the 40th day after birth. The first 40 days were believed to be critical for both the young mother and the newly born that were under risk from evil forces. Whenever the young mother had to go out of the house after sunset, she would take with her live embers. Fire cleansing was trusted in case the clothes of the newly born infant had been accidentally left under the night sky.

There is a range of rituals for jumping over fires that traditional community practiced for the sake of sound health. Ritual village fires are quite common even today during March holidays. On 1 March, the Day of Granny Martha, all unnecessary belongings had to be burnt out. On the Feast of Mladentsi, 11 March, and on Annunciation, 25 March, fire is used to banish symbolically vipers, lizards and harmful insects. These enemies of the house and field work were also driven away on the Jeremy Feast, 1 May. On the eve of the feast, right after sunset, young brides, girls and children would go round the house and the yard. Just like on Annunciation, they recited invocations. In the meantime, they also produced loud noise by clattering with tongs and other iron instruments that had been cleansed by fire. In many places, fires were made and people jumped over them.

The spring fires are also protective and cleansing as they prepare the community for fertility expected during the summer and fall. The most famous fire ritual at this time of year is Cheesefare Sunday, the start of the Great Lent for Easter. In some parts of Bulgaria a burning basket was positioned on a high place. In other regions a stick cut through on one end was rotated. Straw was placed on it that was kindled. The flames that these burning objects threw into the darkness remind of the sun and represent a kind of a solar magic – veneration for the divinized luminary and a way to boost its power.

Ritual fires were made for Midsummer’s Day and on the Sts. Constantine & Helen Feast held in Strandja Mountain, Southeastern Bulgaria. Even the ashes from those fires were beneficial for the health.

Apart from veneration for fire as a creative power, the Bulgarians have practiced rituals designated for protection from the devastation of natural elements. In the summer, on St. Paul’s Feast, St. Elijah’s Day and during the so-called Goreshtnitsi (Hottest Days) fire rituals were performed as a precaution against forest fires. During those periods of the year bans were enforced on a few labor activities.

Once annually, in every village the ritual of making a new fire was performed. It was also called wild, alive, God’s or wooden fire. The earliest Bulgarian ethnographers have described those practices in many regions of Bulgaria. In certain places ritual actions were held by twin brothers or by two regular brothers but necessarily with living parents. In traditional beliefs, the fire fell from the sky on the third day of the Hottest Days (17 July). Therefore, the making of the new fire was made on this day. It was then that all hearths in the house were cleaned up. The new fire was made by friction of a piece of hazel wood placed between two lime sticks. The piece of hazel wood was bound with a rope. Each of the men held one end of the wood. For hours, they would rotate the piece in opposite directions until the first sparks appeared. Kindling was made by the use of tinder – a specially processed tree mushrooms. After that every housewife took away in complete silence some live embers to her house. This same ritual was performed also in cases when epidemics broke out affecting either humans or animals.

Translated by Daniela Konstantinova

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Fire in traditional Bulgarian culture

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