Twins have a special place in Bulgarian folklore tradition. The power they possess can break magic and protect from disease and demons. There are many beliefs associated with this force as well as with the extraordinary bond between people born in the same day or month.

The simultaneous birth of two children brings great joy to the family, fortune and fertility for everyone in the house. One popular belief has it that twins of the same sex possess a special force. When they are a brother and a sister, their abilities diminish. One legend claims that twins are born if during pregnancy the woman has violated the prohibition to eat an egg with a double yolk, to sit on the saddle bags, etc. It is also believed that a female twin has a healing and sorcerer’s gift. If she jumps three times over a person with backpain lying on the threshold, he or she would be healed. A woman who has given birth to twins more than once also has the skills of a wizard. It was once believed that such a woman could bring down the moon, turn it into a cow and milk her.

Twins are born with a similar fate. The same goes for the children in the family born in different years, but in one and the same month. If one is sick, the other gets sick, too. If one dies, the second will follow shortly. Mothers of twins or children born in the same month used to perform special rituals for their symbolic separation. What was required was an egg with a double yolk, a whole kernel of a walnut or the fruit of a tree that blossomed twice during the year. Children had to stand on both sides of a bridge or ford separated by a river, and the mother broke the egg or the fruit in two and fed this to them. Or the two children lied on the ground and their father planted a fruit tree between them. Only twin girls could perform some rituals in the folk wedding, christening, and others. Twin brothers were those who acquired a new or live fire by rubbing dry trees. New fire is produced each year around the summer solstice, and in the event of an epidemic or other evil - at any time of year. Humans and animals had to pass symbolically through it in order to avoid all calamities and diseases.

Plowing, or zaoravane, was also among the ordinances which must necessarily be carried out by the twins. The elements in it unequivocally speak of the ancient origin of this practice. Once the areas of the settlements were selected by the most experienced and wisest in the community. People settled only in clean and good places. However, there was a risk evil and trouble could come from the outside. “In order to preserve the village from these plagues and diseases, popular belief recommended that when you settled in a village (or had already settled) the village should be plowed", wrote one of the first Bulgarian ethnographers Dimitar Marinov. 

The preparation for this act of tilling the land was quite complicated. It was mandatory to have a new plow made especially for the occasion. The tree used to make the plow should have one root leaving two stalks. The iron for the ploughshare (the metal part) should be collected from nine villages that necessarily had to be located in different districts. It should be forged only in the dead of night "in secret" before the break of dawn - when all life was asleep and only the moon was shining. According to Dimitar Marinov’s description of the ritual, the smiths had to be completely naked. Some sources mention that the requirement is that they had to be twins or gypsies.

Once the plow was ready, oxen-twins should be found. The ploughmen were also twins. The plowing was done in secret, and the young men had to wear no clothes. Before starting the main part of the ritual, the public crier alerted villagers not to leave the village at night. Also, no one could enter. This was the task of watchmen and shepherds. Nobody should see the twins while performing the ritual because thus the magical protective effect of tilling would vanish. Twins delineated three concentric circles around the village. It was believed that thus the plague would not penetrate inside and would keep away also the demonic creatures inhabiting the unknown, uncultivated nature nearby. In the event of an epidemic or a series of bad events, the ritual is performed again. Stories of twin deities, creators of the universe, abound in the mythology of ancient cultures. We find them in India, Hellas, Ancient Rome… In Bulgaria the legends of the sun, moon and stars are often rationalized as twins or siblings, also in the legends of Baba Marta and her two brothers in February and April. Impressive is the story of the hapless twins Yanka and Yankul separated at birth. Without knowing that they were a brother and sister, they fell in love, got married and they had a child. Having learned that they were twins, they asked the Lord to turn them into stars that never saw each other. Thus emerged the stars with the names Denitza (The Daytime Star) (which is in heaven during the day) and Vechernitsa (The Evening Start) or Hesperus (which shines at night).

With the adoption of Christianity, the Twin Cult extended to biblical characters. According to folk tales and legends, twins were the Saints Peter and Paul, Cosmas and Damian, George and Demetrius, Petka and Nedelya and others. We find images of twins or related motifs in embroidery, woodcarvings, in the decoration of vessels and other objects made of copper and iron.

English version: Rossitsa Petcova