What is the traditional ritual meal on Petrovden, St. Peter’s day? What does eating a chicken leg mean? And when is the first cockcrow? In this edition of Folk Studio, Ass. Prof. Dr. Vihra Baeva, expert at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum answers these and many other questions, connected with the meaning of hens, roosters and chickens in Bulgarian folklore tradition.

“Hens play a key role in the life of Bulgarian villagers, on their farms but also in their beliefs and superstitions,” says prominent Bulgarian ethnographer Dimitar Marinov and goes on: “If you have hens, then you can make good if people come visiting: you can go out, catch a hen and kill it, then cook it and – there’s your feast.” By a tradition, someone who has fallen sick is also given hen as ponuda (offering) – roast or boiled and glazed over with butter.

Hens are popularly thought to be stupid and noisy. Hence the belief that if you eat hen’s brains your memory will fade. Describing someone who cannot keep a secret, it is said that he has eaten chicken leg. There is also a proverb that goes: “when the hen lays an egg it squawks all over the neighbourhood.” – describing someone who is fond of bragging.

Even though in the Christian world the hen is considered to be unclean and is not consecrated in church, in popular belief it is held in high esteem. It is said that any human dwelling, be it a house, a hut or a pen must have a hen and a cock. One of the most damning oaths is – May a cock never crow in your home, meaning the home is deserted and barren. In rituals for health, disease and evil spells are sent to the forests, distant and cold, where the cock never crows, the dog never barks and the plough never goes – i.e. to the hereafter where no human would venture.

Hens are also thought to be connected with the celestial sphere. The popular name for the Pleiades constellation is Brooder with chicks; in riddles the moon and the stars are compared to a golden hen with golden chicks. Ancient mythological meanings are read into the hen’s bond with time, as in the riddle: A brooder with twelve chickens (the months in the year) or A black brooder gathers her chicks, a white brooder ushers them away (the night, the day and the stars). According to the lyrics to an ancient children’s song time is a hen, the stars are the eggs she has laid.

The rooster is a symbol of the Sun, as he heralds its coming. The hours after midnight go by the name of cock hours, and are measured by the cock’s crowing: first cockcrow (around 1), second cockcrow (around 3), and third cockcrow(around 5). The cock’s resounding voice also has the ability to cast out demons. Vampires, ogres and ghouls lose their powers and flee when they hear him crow. That is why it is safe to leave the house and start on a journey at first cockcrow. In some parts of the country the lasses would wear a cock’s tail as an ornament – to ward off evil eyes and spells.

The cock also embodies the idea of fertility and virility; that is why it is part of wedding rituals as a symbol of the bridegroom.

In traditional speech, chicken is used to denote any kind of bird, as in falcon chicken, but more specifically – the hen’s offspring. It is also used to address a loved one: the mother would call her child chick or chicken, the young man or the husband would use the same form of address when talking to his beloved. Describing the love between Ivo and Ralitsa, in his famous poem, Pencho Slaveikov writes: He called her his chick. There are also a number of phrases like he carries a chicken heart – when talking about someone who is timid or easily frightened or chicken muscles – weak and defenseless, or milk from a chicken – meaning a bountiful table, laden with everything one can imagine.

Stories are told about wizards who had a wondrous mamniche chicken. They would brood the egg themselves – they took the first egg laid on Maundy Thursday and keep it in their armpit until it was hatched. The wondrous chicken would fly off at once, only to bring back to its master all kinds of treasures – money, gold, jewelry. With its wonderful singing it would enchant one and all and they would fall down in a swoon – that is why, at night, people would cover their ears, so as not to hear, or fire guns to muffle the sound.

Another famous phrase is the St. Peter’s day chicken, ritually slaughtered as an offering to St. Peter on his patron saint’s day, June 29. Roasted whole or made into soup, it marked the end of the 14-day fast and part of the meat was given out to relatives and friends for health. Hence the saying: Like a pig at Christmas, like a lamb on St. George’s day, like a chicken on St. Peter’s day.

English: Milena Daynova